OTTAWA, 29 May — Saudi Ambassador to Canada Dr. Muhammad Al-Husseini yesterday denied press reports that William Sampson, a Canadian jailed in the Kingdom in connection with Riyadh blasts, had been tortured by jail authorities.
“This is totally false,” Al-Husseini told Arab News by telephone. He said Saudi Arabia is a signatory to the UN agreement that bans torture of prisoners. The ambassador was responding to a Reuters report which quoted Canadian Foreign Minister John Manley as saying that he was “very concerned” by reports that a Canadian citizen in a Saudi prison might have been beaten. Manley told Reuters that Canada’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia and a doctor had visited Sampson earlier in the day to assess his injuries.
“Torturing prisoners was against the teachings of our religion, Islam, and Saudi customs and laws,” said Al-Husseini. He said the Saudi government had allowed Canadian Embassy officials to visit their jailed citizens regularly. He affirmed the readiness of Saudi Embassy in Ottawa to arrange prison visits by Sampson’s family, adding that his father had earlier been given a visa to visit him.
Al-Husseini said Sampson had clearly confessed on Saudi television his role in the bombings as he, in association with Alexander Mitchell, placed an explosive under the driver’s seat of the car owned by Christopher Rodway, a Briton, who was killed in the incident. Sampson allegedly detonated the explosive using a remote control device on Nov. 17. He was also involved in the second blast that occurred on Nov. 22.
