The number of Saudis imprisoned in Iraq is unclear, Al-Watan daily reported on Tuesday.
An agreement to exchange prisoners has not yet been signed between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. According to the Iraqi ambassador in Riyadh, there are 107 Saudis detained in 10 prisons in Iraq. “We have submitted a list of their names to the authorities in the Kingdom,” he said.
The ambassador said the two countries have agreed on a draft agreement to exchange prisoners. “We are now working to fix a meeting between the Iraqi Ministry of Justice and the Saudi Interior Ministry to sign the agreement,” he added.
The Saudi National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has compiled a list of 56 names, based on information from family members of the prisoners.
The society said it was giving utmost attention to this file and had been in constant contacts with the Iraqi Embassy in Riyadh and the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights, seeking a solution to the predicament of the Saudi prisoners.
According to the society, the Saudi prisoners were distributed among prisons in 10 Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, Al-Mosul and others. It said it had intensified its research after the death in 2006 of a Saudi detainee in Al-Sulaimaniyah prison. He was jailed for 15 years for violating the Iraqi passport law.
“The prisoner was suffering from leukemia and his body was sent to the forensic department of Al-Sulaimaniyah hospital.”
Chairman of the society Mufleh Al-Qahtani called for expediting the signing of the agreement and asked the Iraqi authorities to reveal the names and locations of the Saudi prisoners. He also urged the Iraqis not to execute Saudis prisoners who were sentenced to death under Iraqi law.
A Saudi security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Kingdom was keen to know all about its Saudi citizens being held in Iraq. He noted that the volume of misled Saudi youths traveling to Iraq for Jihad has greatly dwindled following a fatwa by the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh. The grand mufti warned young men against going out on the pretext of Jihad, since the situation in Iraq was not clear.
The security official said the Interior Ministry helped to raise awareness about the deviant ideology of Al-Qaeda.
