Arabia: Thousands of detainees without charges or trial

RYAD- The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Monday the Saudi General Security to ignore both the law of the land and the orders of justice by maintaining in detention suspects for years without trial.

•     The Department of General security “mabaheth" within the Ministry of Interior, hold thousands of people suspected of involvement in terrorism and sedition, many arrested during the wave of attacks by Al Qaeda (2003-2006), HRW says in a report.
  
      It also kept under lock and key activists in favour of democratic reforms, said the organization of Human Rights based in New York.
  
      But after years of detention, very few of them are indicted or tried, according to the organization.
  
      HRW cites detainees’ families interviewed who have complained that no charges had been lodged against them.
  
      One of the prisoners told the NGO that about 20 inmates in the prison of "mabaheth of Jouf” (north), arrested for acts of violence, were still in prison even after serving their sentences.
  
      He cites the case of Imad al-Matroudi that general security refuses to release, ten months after an appeal of Justice to expand because of his detention without charge since 2004.
  
      HRW notes that in 2002 the Saudi government passed a law stating that those arrested should be informed within 48 hours of the causes of their arrest and tried or released within six months.
  
      "Some families have contested the continued imprisonment of their relatives to the administrative court," according to the group. "But the Interior Ministry, which includes the mabaheth, has ignored the decisions of the court ordering the release of persons detained for a period exceeding the legal limit of six months."
  
      "The mabaheth act as if they were above the law," writes HRW director for the Middle East Sarah Leah Whitson in the press release.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.