JEDDAH: Mufleh Al-Qahtani, president of the National Society of Human Rights (NSHR), said the the rights organization has established offices in five prisons of the Ministry of Interior’s Investigation Department to follow up on the conditions of detainees.

He said the ministry’s approval shows the authorities have nothing to hide. “Detainees’ conditions can be monitored closely without restrictions,” he said.

The NSHR has been following up detainees’ cases and visiting them regularly to check on their conditions. An NSHR representative meets with prisoners regularly to make sure they get their rights and conveys news of their conditions to their families.

Opening offices in prisons is an “advanced and important step” that is appreciated by the NSHR, he said, calling on the Supreme Judicial Council and the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution to expedite legal procedures “for everybody to get their rights without postponement or delay.”

He said some prisoners decline visitations by members of their families thinking that that will get their cases processed faster and them released early despite the fact their cases are not with the security but legal authorities. He called for further facilitating family visits.

The authorities have facilitated communication between prisoners and their families.

“As for the human rights society, their members are permitted to enter prison wards and rooms and check the conditions of all detainees without exception and convey their demands to the prison administration or to court or any other department,” he said.

Last year 2,000 detainees were released. Some of them were freed after investigations and some were acquitted by courts. Most of them were accused of being involved in cases related to terrorism.

Asked if the NSHR will hire lawyers to defend detainees, Al-Qahtani said the Ministry of Justice is responsible for this. Lawyers are hired by detainees’ families or by prisoners themselves. Those who are not able to hire lawyers are provided by the Ministry of Justice with lawyers to defend them, he said.

Al-Qahtai warned against protests that “do not serve their cases but complicate their procedures.”