Riyadh, July 22: Saudi Arabia has been abusing the fight against terrorism and violating the rights of people by detaining thousands under the pretext of security since 2001, says a new Amnesty International (AI) report.
In a 69-page report, the human rights organization has warned that an unspecified number of detainees are being held in virtual secrecy, without access to lawyers or visitors for months or years and that some people have been killed in ‘uncertain circumstances’.
According to the human rights organization, those who are brought to trial often face grossly unfair procedures that can be easily described as shocking.
The number of people being held arbitrarily, including both locals as well as foreigners, “has risen from hundreds to thousands since 2001”, said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program.
“These unjust anti-terrorism measures have made an already dire human rights situation worse,” he said.
In a campaign of repression justified with the claim of security enforcement, Saudi Arabia has detained an unknown number of human rights defenders, advocates of political reform and members of religious minorities who had committed no crime recognized by the international law, he added.
Citing June 2007 confirmation by the Saudi Interior Ministry that 9,000 security suspects were detained between 2003 and 2007 and that 3,106 of them were then still being held, Amnesty reported that some of the captives are prisoners of conscience, targeted for their criticism of government policies.
The report was released after Saudi Arabia handed down verdicts earlier this month for its first publicly reported trials since al-Qaeda-linked militants allegedly began their campaign in 2003 against the world’s top oil exporter.
In all, 289 Saudi Arabian nationals and 41 foreigners received sentences of up to 30 years in prison, Saudi state media said last week. It did not reveal the nationalities of those accused.
One unnamed person was also sentenced to death, a government official said.
—–Agencies