JEDDAH, 9 June 2008 — A Saudi man who has been in an Israeli prison for over three years in spite of completing an initial three-month jail sentence for crossing into Israeli territory while trekking on the Egypt-Israel border says he has always cooperated with officials from the United Nations (UN).
“I have always cooperated with the UN and other human rights representatives but have not been visited by them for nearly a year,” said Abdul Rahman Al-Atwi, 38. Al-Atwi’s comments contradict the claims by the Israeli Interior Ministry at Tel Aviv’s Central Court last month that the Saudi man’s release had been delayed due to his failure to cooperate with UN representatives.
The Israeli court had issued a verdict last October demanding that he be set free no later than April 30, unless the Israeli government had good reason to continue detaining him.
Al-Atwi, who spoke to Arab News from Massiyahu prison via his lawyer Buthaina Duqmaq, a representative of the Mandela Institute for Human Rights and Political Prisoners in Ramallah, said that human rights representatives used to frequently visit him during his first two hunger strikes — ranging from 70 to 90 days.
He added that no one had come to see him during his last two hunger strikes, hinting that the Israeli authorities may have possibly hidden information about him from human rights bodies.
“During the last hunger strike he was at a different prison. A prison for the general population; not one for people who are hit with similar charges as him,” said Duqmaq.
She added that Al-Atwi described his stay there as “very bad” and that he was “very happy” to return to Massiyahu, where conditions are relatively better.
Duqmaq said Al-Atwi shares a cell with nine other foreign prisoners, and that he has grown weak and finds it difficult to move in the three-meter-wide cell.
“He survives on water and salt when he is on hunger strike,” she said, adding that he said that he is not wanted for any domestic or political crime, and that he had no criminal record in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Atwi, who is divorced with a daughter and from the northwestern region of Tabuk, had visited several Middle East countries for holidaying before arriving in Egypt in 2005. Recalling the time before his arrest, he said he had arrived in Sinai after hearing about its beauty. “When I arrived in Sinai, I went trekking and got lost. I came to a wire fence. There were no visible signs, nothing to indicate that I was crossing a country’s border,” he said, adding that it was close to sunset when Israeli soldiers came to him.
He said that the soldiers spoke to him in Hebrew, and that he told them that he was Saudi and showed them his passport. One of the soldiers then told him in Arabic that he was in Israel. They then escorted him to a security post where he was detained and interrogated for 24 hours. He was later brought before an Israeli court.
People who cross into Israel illegally face imprisonment under Israeli law, which says citizens of enemy countries should be sent to jail.
Since there are no diplomatic ties between the Kingdom and Israel, after serving his three-month prison sentence Al-Atwi should have ideally been released to a third country, which could facilitate his return to Saudi Arabia.
However, UN efforts to hand him to another country has not been successful, as five countries — Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Finland and Sweden — declined to accept.
Human Rights Bodies
Arab News recently contacted the UNHCR via its regional representative in Riyadh. In a written statement, Hamdi Bukhari, the UNHCR’s senior legal adviser for North Africa and Middle East, said the body was unable to discuss the case citing privacy reasons.
Arab News also contacted the Saudi Foreign Ministry. Abdullah Al-Turki, an official from the ministry, directed this reporter to the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), which, he said, had been appointed to follow the case.
Mufleh Al-Qahtani, vice president of the NSHR, told Arab News he does not see any reason why Egypt would prevent Al-Atwi from reentering Egypt via Palestinian territories.
Asked if the Kingdom has contacted the Arab countries that have refused to accept the Saudi national, Al-Qahtani said that this was “unclear.”
Asked whether he knew why Al-Atwi had entered Israel, he repeated that this was also “unclear.” Prodded whether there was truth in the Israeli authorities’ claims that Al-Atwi had not cooperated with UN representatives, he said this was also “unclear.”
He, however, said it is clear that “Israel is violating human rights by continuing to detain Al-Atwi.” He further advised Arab News contact Buthaina Duqmaq for more information.
Duqmaq said the only people asking about Al-Atwi are his brother and his local family lawyer Abdur Rahman Al-Shammari. “The lawyer asks for a report on his case from time to time… if he remains neglected he’s going to die in prison. His health is deteriorating,” she added.
