The trials of nine Saudis charged with violating passport laws start this week in Iraq.
The Saudis are being held on charges of “exceeding border limits” under Article 9 of Iraq's passport laws. They were charged with other criminal offenses after they allegedly confessed to Iraqi security forces.
Thamer Al-Balheid, who handles the files of Saudi detainees in Iraq, said Iraqi sources told him that the trials of the nine would begin at the end of the week.
Some of the prisoners had been reported missing. They may have made their confessions under duress, which was the case with other Saudi detainees. This happened to Mazen Al-Samawi who was executed based on confessions extracted from him under torture. This happened even as another court ordered a halt to his execution and a retrial.
Al-Balheid said there were Saudi prisoners on trial and under interrogation even though they were arrested 10 years ago. They could face harsher sentences unless a rapid solution is found to bring them home, he said.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi authorities transferred the Saudi detainee Mahmood Al-Sharif to Al-Rosafa 3 prison, because of his deteriorating medical condition. He has tuberculosis but has not been treated or hospitalized.
Tuberculosis threatens the lives of 25 Saudi detainees in Taji prison. Saad Al-Musbah died of TB because of medical negligence, Al-Balheid had charged previously.
The trials are starting in the wake of a series of bombings in Baghdad, certain provinces and on prisons. The last of these attacks targeted Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons and various markets.
A total of 45 Saudi detainees in Iraq will be referred to a medical committee in the days ahead, after two Iraqi lawyers filed reports to the public prosecutor alleging they had been tortured.
Iraqi media named five of them as Bandar bin Saud Awad, Shadi Muslim Ma’allah, Ali Hassan Ali, Abdulrahman Mohammad Al-Qahtani and Naif Adi Ayesh.
Trial of Saudis arrested in Iraq starts this week
