Saudi prisoners languishing in an Iraqi jail will be permitted to meet with their relatives tomorrow.
“Their relatives have already completed formalities to obtain entry visas to Kurdistan province where they will 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 recently.
The Iraqi Embassy in Riyadh has received 19 passports to obtain the entry permits for the relatives, Al-Blaihed said.
Some of the prisoners’ relatives did not accompany the visiting team due to their health issues, he said.
Al-Blaihed said there are 30 Saudis in Sousa jail. The meeting is being arranged with the cooperation of the Saudi Red Crescent and the International Red Cross, a local daily reported. Lawyers representing the Saudi prisoners in Iraqi jails had requested the authorities to move all Saudi detainees 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 said only 4 percent of Saudi detainees were involved in terrorism-related issues while 80 percent of the Saudi inmates were convicted of minor criminal charges.
It was also reported recently that eight Saudis were jailed in Iraq without trial.
In March a delegation of 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 a Saudi prisoner in Iraq Badar Al-Shamri may face execution, as he was transferred from Rosafa to Al-Shaaba prison where executions are usually carried out.
Sources say 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.
KSA prisoners in Iraq to meet with relatives tomorrow
