JEDDAH, 11 June — Saudi Arabia’s top judicial official was quoted yesterday as saying Westerners working in the Kingdom must obey the country’s laws or face the consequences. Sheikh Saleh ibn Muhammad Al-Laheedan, head of the Supreme Judicial Council, rejected criticism of Islamic laws, saying Westerners should stay home if they intended to break them.
“It is they who are in need of us because they come to us. And if the Westerners in Britain or Canada or other countries don’t wish to work in the Kingdom then there are other nationalities that come and respect the Kingdom’s laws,” he said bluntly in an interview with the Arabic-language newspaper Okaz.
An estimated six million foreigners work in the Kingdom. “It is internationally recognized that if a person enters a country he must respect the traditions and laws of that country and no one enters the Kingdom without the prior knowledge that it bans the trading and use of liquor,” Sheikh Saleh said, adding that critics of Saudi laws are actually trying to undermine Islam.
Detainees who confessed to their crime do not need any form of defense, Sheikh Saleh said. He described trading in alcohol as a heinous crime that “corrupts the largest possible number of people”.
“If the person confessed that he traded in alcohol then we have no need for defense,” he explained. “But if the defendant can prove that he had been forced into giving a false confession, then the judge will dismiss the case.”
Saudi authorities are holding a Canadian, a Briton and a Belgian who in February confessed on Saudi Television to involvement in two bombings in Riyadh. If convicted, the men could face the death penalty under the Shariah.
Investigations have shown they are implicated in an attack in Khobar in December and in two other in Riyadh in January and March, respectively.
Interior Minister Prince Naif reported that a Canadian citizen detained since March has been cleared of suspicion and released. “We’ll soon publish all the facts about the explosions ... but the investigations are continuing to know the details and to find out who ordered them,” Prince Naif said.
