The prisoners tell tales of their various harrowing experiences. However, all of them agree on one thing. Had they committed major offenses like drug trafficking, they would have been sentenced to a lesser punishment.

Before coming to a letter that I received from a Saudi prisoner, I would like to draw your attention to a similar letter that came from the UAE.

“We are three Emirati women married to a Saudi man and have nine children,” the letter said. “He rented out one villa each for us. Our husband continued his business successfully. But the situation changed after he entered into a partnership with another Saudi investor to establish a cement factory in Yemen.”

The letter speaks at length about the losses he incurred from the new joint venture, leading to a legal wrangle between the two in the UAE courts.

At first, the husband was exonerated. But later, he was sentenced to jail by the appeals court. The women claimed that the Saudi consulate in Dubai said it would not appoint a lawyer for their husband on the grounds that the rival party in the case was also a Saudi!

Documents regarding the women’s imprisoned husband and details about their suffering were made available to my colleagues. I hope the Human Rights Commission and the National Society of Human Rights will look into this issue and address their grievances. Let me come back now to the case of the Saudi man imprisoned in the Kingdom after being convicted in a lawsuit.

The finer details of such letters from those imprisoned following insolvency cases may not be covered in our print media. Hence, I want to talk about his case in a nutshell. The man’s problem started nearly five years ago after the power in a commercial building he owned was cut.

He claimed that the Saudi Electricity Company office in Makkah did this without any notice. He was surprised at the company’s choice of timing for this act, as it was during the holy month of Ramadan and all government departments were closed for Eid vacation.

He then filed lawsuits against the SEC at the Court of Grievances and the public court. These courts then referred the case to the specialist judicial authority in Riyadh.

In the meantime, he was imprisoned following petitions filed by tenants due to the losses they sustained following the power disruption. He was then released on bail. The case was then transferred to the Jeddah court and the judge there issued a verdict in favor of the Saudi man, ordering SEC to pay compensation. But the company did not comply.

The man was again imprisoned in Taif for his failure to meet his commitments to his tenants. The judge again released him on bail. The man was denied his civil rights. Subsequently, he faced other troubles in the form of family disputes and he lost his house following a decision by a real estate committee. He is now a burden to society. Even his stature as a businessman does not bring him any social benefits. He cannot see any committee or charitable society taking care of prisoners like him. The man says he would have been released at least for one day during the holy month of Ramadan to meet his wife and children if he had committed a major crime such as drug trafficking. ([email protected])