RIYADH, 28 July — Canadian Ambassador Melvyn MacDonald contradicted a report published in a section of the press about the death penalty meted out to a Canadian national William Sampson, saying that “the Saudi courts are still looking at the case.”
Five Britons, jailed on the same charges of bombings and alcohol trading are likely to be freed within three weeks, said an AFP report quoting their lawyer Salah Al-Hujailan.
Ambassador MacDonald told Arab News here today that he will raise the issue of Sampson besides several other subjects of common interest during his meeting with Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammad Ibn Naif later this week. “No final decision has been made in the case of this 42-year old Canadian national,” clarified the diplomat, adding that “the Canadian embassy has been given consular access, but Sampson himself has refused to meet consular representatives on many occasions.”
Referring to the fate of the five Britons still behind bars, Al- Hujailan said that “they could be released within two to three weeks.”
Sampson was arrested in November 2001 along with a Briton, Alexander Mitchell and a Belgian, Raf Schyvens on charges of carrying out bomb blasts that killed two expatriates in Saudi Arabia. They were shown on Saudi television confessing their role in the bombings, saying that they placed an explosive under the driver’s seat of the car owned by Christopher Rodway, a Briton, who was killed. Sampson allegedly detonated the explosive using a remote control device on Nov. 17, 2001.
He was also allegedly involved in a second blast that occurred on Nov. 22 the same year.
Asked about the authenticity of reports published in Western media about the death penalty, Ambassador MacDonald said that these reports are based on interviews of lawyer Al-Hujailan, who is well known in Canada and several European countries.
