A Summary of Dr. Mohsin Al-Awaji’s

Report About tortures in the Saudi Prison System

Introduced to the Minister of Interior

In 2000

 

• Dr. Mohsin Al-Awaji authored a report that documents human right abuses in Saudi prison system; it was submitted to the Interior Minister with the testimonies of 10 of the victims who were subjected to severe torture. Under oath, the victims told Prince Naif Bin Abdulaziz (the Interior Minister) that they cannot state the whole truth, and they would only say “the believable parts.”
• The prince then said: “these degrading practices only perpetrated by an infidel.” This clearly shows that the prince believed that only non-Muslims are those who violate human rights.
• Prince Naif then verified all of what has been mentioned in the report, especially striping prisoners of all their cloths and the threat of sexual abuse. It was clear to Dr. Awaji that the prince was disturbed by what he heard from the victims’ testimonies before him, especially these serious abuses that are degrading to humans.
• Unfortunately, the Prince did not take any action to redress the victims and punish the criminals, he only put some of the perpetrators on a paid leave for a short time, and then he reinstated them. Some of them have even granted medals of honor, including brigadier general Amen Zaqzoug the director general of the directorate of general investigations (DGI) in Mecca region.
• Dr. Mohsin Al-Awaji said that the victims were not compensated after losing their jobs. One day, he ran into one of the victims who seemed in a miserable state of extreme poverty.
• Dr. Awaji told Price Naif about the existence of instruments of torture in DGI’s Al-Hair political prison, and he personally witnessed bamboo sticks and pips in room (104) of the prison. Awaji then said to the prince: “did prison guards paid for these tortures instruments out of their salaries?” in a clear reference that these tools have been officially provided to DGI’ prisons and paid for by public funds.