JEDDAH, 31 May — A Canadian government official yesterday branded as false allegations that a Canadian was tortured or mistreated in a Saudi jail and said reports of the prisoner’s injuries had been exaggerated.
The official said it was clear William Sampson’s injuries had been suffered during an attempt to restrain the prisoner, who was shown on Saudi television earlier this year confessing to a fatal bombing in Riyadh.
Sampson was taken to hospital last week with injuries that some of his relatives said included a fractured vertebra and bruises on his arms and legs, which they alleged had been inflicted during a beating in jail.
But when a doctor and Canada’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia visited Sampson in hospital on Monday, they filed a report back to Ottawa telling a different story. The Canadian ambassador told Arab News that reports about the case were exaggerated. “One thing I can tell you is that most stories regarding this case contained exaggerated information,” he added.
“If you define torture as somebody being strapped down and somebody having a go at him, no, that is not what we are talking about here.
“There was a need for restraint, there was a very violent reaction to that attempt at restraint and that’s when the injuries occurred as far as we can tell right now,” the official said. A separate government source said it appeared that some of Sampson’s relatives had been misinformed about the extent of Sampson’s injuries. Saudi Ambassador to Canada Muhammad Al-Husseini has denied the report and said his country was opposed to torturing prisoners irrespective of their nationalities.
Saudi Arabia has not yet completed investigations into two bombings in Riyadh last November, in which one Briton was killed and several were injured. Sampson appeared on Saudi television in February confessing to the bombings along with a Briton and a Belgian.
The Canadian ambassador in Riyadh refused to give details of Sampson’s condition and said he was doing so “as per the wish of the prisoner’s family.” But he said Saudi authorities had fully cooperated with the embassy and allowed Sampson’s family to visit him several times.
Al-Husseini said Sampson had been given intensive medical care for complications caused by a heart disease.
“He is receiving excellent medical treatment in the Kingdom,” the ambassador said, adding that Sampson had undergone a heart operation in March.
Al-Husseini said he had informed the Canadian government of the Kingdom’s rejection of the accusations made in the Canadian media, raising concern over the prisoner’s health.
