Saudi Arabia: Further information on fear of imminent execution

PUBLIC AI Index: MDE 23/003/2007

26 January 2007

SAUDI ARABIA Hadi Sa'eed Al-Muteef (m), Saudi Arabian national, aged 31Suliamon Olyfemi (m), Nigerian national, aged about 28 Siti Zainab Binti Duhri Rupa (f), Indonesian national Ahmed al-Bahrani (m), Saudi Arabian national An unknown number of others under sentence of death Hadi Sa’eed Al-Muteef has reportedly attempted suicide twice in eight days, by swallowing nails. It is not clear where the nails came from. He was hospitalised on both occasions, but then returned to solitary confinement. He reportedly suffers from depression and other mental illness.

Hadi Sa’eed Al-Muteef is held at a prison in Najran, in the Western Province of  Saudi Arabia. He began a hunger strike on 14 January to protest against being  sentenced to death and having spent 13 years in prison. On 18 January he was taken to King Khaled hospital in Najran after an attempt to commit suicide by swallowing nails, which caused his abdomen to become swollen. He was discharged from hospital on 21 January, after an operation to remove the nails, only to be returned to solitary confinement. He is said to have made a second suicide attempt on 25 January, again by swallowing nails. He is now in King Khaled hospital, under police guard, and is allowed contact with medical staff only.

He was reportedly arrested in 1994. He was sentenced to death in 1997 after proceedings that failed to meet minimum international standards for fair trial, and on a vague charge relating to comments he had made that were deemed to be contrary to Islam. He did not to have access to a lawyer during either interrogation or the trial. The death sentence was upheld by the Court of Cassation in 2001.

His family reportedly sought clemency from the King. but it is not clear whether the King has accepted their plea.

All four prisoners named above remain at imminent risk of execution.  

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The execution of anyone suffering from psychological problems flouts international standards of justice, as reflected in resolution 2000/65 adopted by the UN Commission on Human Rights in April 2000 which urges countries “"not to impose the death penalty on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder or to execute such a person”".