QATIF, 11 July 2004 — After spending 11 months in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, 37-year-old Saudi Haider Al-Mazraa came home last Friday.

In an interview recalling his experience at the hands of his US jailers, Al-Mazraa told Al-Watan Arabic newspaper he went to Iraq on business but found himself branded a terrorist.

He said he rented a taxi in Damascus with his friend Khaled Al-Qaisoom to take them to Iraq. Al-Qaisoom has also recently been released from Abu Ghraib.

The two say they went to Iraq to buy used cars to sell in Syria and were accompanied by an Iraqi and an Iranian on the trip.

The group arrived in Karbala, in the south of Iraq, to meet with a group to discuss the possibility of a new business. “We hoped to reach an agreement with them to import some carbonated drinks from Kuwait,” said Al-Mazraa.

After spending five days in Karbala, the group left on Saturday, Aug. 28, 2003, which turned out to be the day of their arrest. US forces at that time were conducting a search in the Habareya and Kasrah villages.

“We were carefully searched and they decided to arrest us after they found our cell phones,” he said. “The American forces were restrained in their behavior with the Iranian, who held German nationality. They gave him back his cell phone and his baggage. Because we were Saudis the American forces held us for questioning and interrogated us for more than three hours to get more information on us,” Al-Mazraa said. They asked why the group was in Iraq. “Our crime was that we were Saudis. They accused us of terrorism,” he said.

“We were taken by bus to a military base in Baghdad,” Al-Mazraa said. “We were held there for four days and were beaten and tortured. An American soldier made me kneel with my hands cuffed, not allowing me to lean to the right or left. We were given a sheet to sleep on and we had use our shoes as pillows.”

During the next 12 days, Al-Mazraa saw most of the people from the Habareya village in Abu Ghraib prison.

He was accused of entering Iraq for fighting against the occupation forces. “I told them that a terrorist would not enter Iraq from an official entry point with a Saudi passport. A terrorist coming to Iraq for terrorist activities would not stand in front of you face to face and would not come to Iraq with a bag full of clothes, but with a bag full of bombs and weapons,” he said. “They repeated the same questions over and over again to see whether I was telling the truth or not.”

The most difficult time in the prison was during winter. “They put us in a pool of water,” he said. “They only gave us small blankets to sleep. We were continually beaten for no apparent reason. I guess this is the human rights and freedom they were bringing to Iraq.”

Al-Mazraa said there were between 25 and 30 other Saudis, all of them given substandard food. “It was worse than the food they give to animals and many times we suffered from food poisoning.”

Al-Mazraa’s hope of being released from the prison were finally realized after images of torture inside the prison were published around the world and sparked a huge outcry in the media. “They released a group of 770 from the prison, and I was included,” he recalled.

US forces told Al-Mazraa to leave Iraq within 72 hours of his release or face being rearrested, he said.

But leaving was not made easy. The Kuwaiti authorities did not allow him to cross their border because his passport and papers had not been returned to him. “However, the Saudi Embassy in Syria made it easy for me to enter the country and from there I made my way to Saudi Arabia,” he added.