By UMAR AbdurRahman
Political prisoners in Saudi Arabia are facing severe abuses by prison authorities, according to a medical report leaked to the Guardian newspaper on Sunday.
Saudi detainees including women activists have alleged that authorities mistreated them with unspeakable cruelty, including electric shocks, whippings and sexual harassment, and new revelations of medical reports appear to confirm what they have said for months.
Dissidents have been detained as political prisoners in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Protests and sit-ins calling for political prisoners to be released took place during the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests in many cities throughout Saudi Arabia, with security forces firing live bullets in the air on 19 August 2012 at a protest at al-Ha'ir Prison. As of 2012, recent estimates of the number of political prisoners in Mabahith prisons range from a denial of any political prisoners at all by the Ministry of Interior, to 30,000 by the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission and the BBC.
The report on prisoners' wellbeing was prepared after Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz ordered an internal review and examination despite objections from his son, the crown prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS).
Details of the leaked report published by the Guardian newspaper indicate that political prisoners in the kingdom have been subjected to torture and severe physical abuse. The report contains recommendations to the king that include potential pardoning for the prisoners or early release because of the poor health conditions resulting from severe malnutrition.
The report is thought to be the first documented evidence from within the heart of the royal court that political prisoners are facing severe physical abuse, despite the government’s denials that men and women in custody are being tortured.
A former detainee of Al-Rayyan prison in the city of Mukalla in Hadramout gave the following account of torture:
- Some of us stayed more than four months without knowing of any charges against us.
- Many detainees remain blindfolded since their imprisonment.
- We wore the same clothes, which we had for a long period - some of us for more than two months, which caused the clothing to rot.
- We are not allowed to use the bathroom except once a day - we are therefore forced to pray by performing 'Tayammum' (ablution made with dust in the absence of water).
- It is forbidden to perform the night prayer, and whoever prays during the night is tortured during the day.
- Our bodies are full of wounds from their beating us with whips, and continuous investigation goes on not only throughout the day and night - but every five minutes - with repeated questioning!
Some of the things that detainees who are released do not like to mention or remember are :
- They force the detainees to take off their clothes and put the detainees on each other while saying to them: "These are the maidens of Paradise!".
- Large police dogs are used to straddle detainees while they are naked!
- Use of a 'human grill', which is similar to a chicken grill, for a period of time in order to threaten detainees!
- Preventing detainees drinking water for a period of a few days, and then presenting them with wine or urine when they are thirsty!
However, the report confirmed widespread abuse and mistreatment of political prisoners. Remarks about the condition of those detained include:
"The patient suffers from severe weight loss with continuous bloody vomiting. There are also a number of wounds and bruises scattered in several areas of the body”
“The patient cannot move at all due to wounds in both legs as well as severe weakness in the body due to malnutrition and lack of fluids”.
“The patient suffers from severe burns throughout the body. Old wounds were not completely healed because of medical negligence”
“The patient suffers from difficulty in movement due to severe malnutrition and general lack of fluids. There are also a number of bruises, wounds and sores throughout the body”
In almost all cases, the reports demanded the prisoners be urgently transferred from solitary confinement to a medical centre.
The conditions of the prisoners are consistent with several reports that have emerged in recent months involving claims of torture in Saudi prisons.
Saudi Arabian political imprisonment has been described as "an epidemic" that includes "religious scholars and students, think tanks, reformists, human rights activists, lawyers, political parties, bloggers, individual protestors, as well as long-standing government supporters who merely voiced mild and partial criticism of government policy."
This is a government which claims to follow the dictates of the shariah, indeed prisons over flowing with scholars and students of Shari'a just like Guantanamo bay and other American prisons, indicates the opposite for the better named state 'Saudi America'.