JEDDAH, 5 February — A Canadian awaiting trial in Saudi Arabia for alleged involvement in a bomb explosion in Riyadh, has again refused to see a visiting team of diplomats, Canadian officials said yesterday.
William Sampson, who was arrested in December 2000 after the bomb blast that killed a Briton, has regularly turned away Canadian officials since last November and did the same on Saturday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in Ottawa, quoted by news agencies.
"He refused to meet the two representatives who went to jail to see him. The Saudis made efforts to convince him to meet the two but he was pretty adamant about it and he refused," said Reynald Doiron.
Sampson, along with a Briton and a Belgian, appeared on Saudi television last February to confess to the bombing. He is also refusing to see his lawyer.
"We do not believe this type of behavior is going to be very constructive in terms of preparing his defense if it comes to that...(it) is not going to put him in a favorable light with the judicial authorities," Doiron said.
Canadian and Saudi officials say Sampson tried to commit suicide last year to draw attention to his case.
Saudi authorities have blamed the bombing and other similar blasts on rival gangs of Western bootleggers.
