RIYADH, 25 November 2007 — Rabah ibn Ataya Al-Kihaly has been through a nightmare scenario. The 40-year-old Saudi man who, his family says, has psychological problems, was arrested in Riyadh by immigration authorities who mistook him for an illegal migrant from Yemen.
In an interview with the daily Al-Riyadh recently, Al-Kihaly recounted how he was deported to Yemen without even so much as a background check to verify his claim that he was a Saudi citizen. The arrest took place in 2007, but the report didn’t say exactly when.
The incident began when Al-Kihaly rented a car to travel to Riyadh to obtain government permission to marry a non-Saudi woman. Family members said because of his mental illness he had no luck finding a Saudi woman to marry. Al-Kihaly lost his ID after arriving in Riyadh.
“Police stopped me at a checkpoint in Riyadh. I told them that I had lost my ID card and they released me,” he said. “I was later arrested by the Passport Department. They placed me in prison without questioning me. After one day, they deported me to Yemen.”
The unlucky Saudi said in Yemen the locals sympathized with him but offered little help. He said that Yemeni border officers detained him for two days after his deportation. On the day he was released Yemeni security officers, who suspected that he was an insurgent as he couldn’t produce any identification, arrested him again.
In a twist befitting a Kafka novel, Al-Kihaly was sent to prison on charges of illegally entering Yemen; he stayed there for three months.
“In the prison I met a Saudi citizen by the name of Ali Muhammad Al-Najrani,” he told the paper. “I told him my story and he managed to help me. He called some of his relatives in the Kingdom. They found my family through the telephone book.”
Afterward, Saeed Thawab Al-Kihaly went to Yemen to get his cousin out. “We sent a photocopy of Rabah’s ID to prove that he is a Saudi citizen,” said Saeed. “We then booked him a ticket from Najran to Jeddah where his cousin Nafea Al-Kihaly and one of his relatives, Namy Al-Ahmady, came to welcome him at the airport and take him to his parents’ home.”
Al-Kihaly said it was an enormous relief when he was finally able to get back home, but that he feels betrayed by his own government.
“I thank God that I am back with my family and friends,” he said. “I think I need treatment in a specialized hospital and I wish to have a house and family one day.”
Rabah’s father Qabel ibn Ataya Al-Kihaly, a man in his 60s, is asking for compensation from the government in order to have Rabah treated in a specialized hospital. “I am an old man and I have a family of 15,” he said. “I am not able to take care of him well.”
The father said his son often goes into epileptic seizures. “When we would take him to the psychiatric hospital in the city we were never able to find a bed,” he said. “So we would take him back home.”
Qabel said his son gets SR750 a month in disability insurance. “It isn’t sufficient to cover all of his expenses,” he added.
