Saudi prisoners languishing in an Iraqi jail will be permitted to meet with their relatives on Thursday.
“Their relatives have already completed formalities to obtain their entry visas to Kurdistan province where they will be allowed to visit the Sousa prison facilities in which many Saudi prisoners are confined,” Chairman of the Committee for Saudi Prisoners in Iraq Thamer Al-Blaihed said in a statement on Saturday.
The Embassy of Iraq in Riyadh received 19 passports to obtain the entry permits for the relatives, Al-Blaihed added.
Some of the prisoners’ relatives did not accompany the visiting team due to their ill health, he said, adding that there are 30 Saudis in Sousa.
The meeting is being arranged with the cooperation of the Saudi Red Crescent and the International Red Cross, Al-Watan daily reported on Sunday.
The lawyers representing the Saudi prisoners in Iraqi jails had requested the authorities to move all Saudi prisoners to the Sousa jail, as it was reputed to have better humanitarian conditions, in contrast to the other jails in the country in which the prisoners had been subject to violence. It was reported last year that Saudi prisoners were tortured for flimsy pretexts such as the defeat of the Iraqi football team in a match refereed by a Saudi umpire.
Al-Blaihed believed that only 4 percent of Saudi detainees were involved in terrorism-related issues while 80 percent of the Saudi inmates were convicted of criminal charges.
It was also reported recently that eight Saudis were jailed in Iraq without trial.
In March a delegation of the Saudi Embassy in Jordan visited the Sousa and another prison called Jam Jamal in the Suleimaniah province. While Jam Jamal has two Saudi prisoners, the Sousa prison housed 18, all of whom have been imprisoned for trespassing into Iraqi territory. That delegation did not visit any other detention facility due to the poor security conditions in some parts of the country.
A $500 allowance was paid to each Saudi prisoner at Sousa, according to Hamad Al-Hajri, head of the visiting Saudi delegation and deputy ambassador to Jordan.
In April Abdullah Azzam, a Saudi prisoner went on a hunger strike demanding his transfer from the Al-Kathemia prison to the Sousa or Jam Jamal; he has also requested a retrial.
In May, it was reported that the Saudi prisoner Badar Al-Shamri might face execution, as he was transferred from Rosafa to Al-Shaaba prison where executions are usually carried out.
The total number of Saudi prisoners in Iraqi jails is estimated at 61. Negotiations are currently under way to extradite them to the Kingdom.
Iraqi Embassy in Riyadh said in a recent letter to Abdul Rahman Al-Jerais, a lawyer representing the Saudi prisoners in Iraq, that the prisoners swap agreement between the two countries would shortly be implemented and 50 Saudis would be in the first group of returnees.
The first prisoners swap agreement between the Kingdom and Iraq was signed in 1983. A high profile Iraqi delegation visited Riyadh last year and met with officials from the Ministry of Interior and agreed to implement the prisoners swap accord in line with the 1983 agreement.
Saudi prisoners in Iraq will meet relatives on Thursday
