Saudi Justice

This hasn’t received as much coverage as it should have (via The Religious Policeman):

Why did the Government of Saudi Arabia frame seven westerners for a series of car bombings they didn’t commit?

Those car bombings, which began in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in November 2000, killed three members of the expatriate community and severely injured several others. To western observers, they were clearly the work of Islamic fundamentalists.

But the Saudis were not about to admit that. So five Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian found themselves arrested, systematically tortured into false confessions and eventually convicted of those bombings.

Since the release of the men from a Saudi Arabian jail last summer, it’s emerged that the Saudis were secretly using them as pawns in a bigger game – a game that for two of the men almost ended in a terrible death.

The Saudis, meanwhile, are shocked at the suggestion that torture could take place in their kingdom:

A Saudi high court judge has dismissed as “baseless” allegations by four Britons that they were tortured at a Riyadh prison to extract confessions.

Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Khudairy said the six Westerners — four Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian — were convicted after 13 judges had looked into the case.

Three of them were sentenced to death while two others were given jail terms for carrying out a series of blasts in Riyadh and Alkhobar in 2001, Okaz newspaper reported.

The court convicted the five after they confessed their crimes on Saudi Television. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd later pardoned them at the request of their families.

“The case had been looked into by three judges in the first phase before it was taken up by five judges of the cassation court and five judges from the Supreme Judiciary Council,” Khudairy said.

He said the five Westerners were given access to all judicial facilities including freedom to talk, simultaneous translation and defense lawyers. “No coercion or torture was used to extract their confessions. They revealed the source of the explosives they used to carry out the blasts,” he said.

Khudairy denied the prisoners complained about torture in Hair Prison at the time. “The judges asked the prisoners whether they had been tortured to extract confessions, but they said no,” he said.

So that’s cleared that up. And the clincher:

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Otaibi, a security and political affairs adviser, said the issue was being raised now to deflect attention from the torture of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers.

Thanks for that Piers: now walking away with a cool £1,500,000 pay-off.