Saudi Arabia punishes detainees for filing a complaint: the death-threatened Saud Al-Faraj begins a hunger strike Saudi Arabia repeats in international forums that it is committed to the principle of separation of powers, and praises the Human Rights Commission and the role of the Public Prosecution in monitoring prisons and the right of individuals to file complaints. However, the reality belies these allegations. Practices in recent years confirm the diminished opportunities for individuals to file complaints and investigate the violations they are exposed to under a policy of complete impunity. This is without ignoring the basis that the institutions concerned with the laws are not independent and are not entrusted with justice.
According to the monitoring of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, the Saudi government deliberately retaliates, punishes, ignores, or denies those who demand justice inside the country. In July 2018, the intelligence forces arrested human rights defender Khaled Al-Omair after he filed a complaint with the royal court against an intelligence officer in charge of torturing him. Also among the evidence of this behaviour is the negativity of the official Human Rights Commission’s handling of the torture and ill-treatment of activist Loujain Al-Hathloul, blatantly ignoring the victim’s complaint. In an event that does not seem to be the last, the concerned authorities in the investigations prison punished the detainee who was sentenced to death, Saud Al-Faraj, because of his request to file a complaint with the Public Prosecution, by torturing him and putting him in a solitary cell.
On July 18, 2023, he went on hunger strike after being severely tortured because of his request to communicate with the Public Prosecution to file a complaint. The information confirmed that after the torture he was subjected to, prison officers put him in a solitary cell in the Dammam Investigation Prison for several days, and he was kept handcuffed and legs tied before returning to the common cell, where he continued his hunger strike.
Al-Faraj has been subjected to many violations since his arrest in December 2019, which prompted him to announce a hunger strike previously, when he was denied contact with his family and his infant daughter.
ESOHR indicates that the torture and beatings that Al-Faraj was subjected to more than once were due to the claim of his legitimate rights, including the right to communication, the right to adequate self-defence and the filing of complaints.
Al-Faraj had submitted several complaints to the Public Prosecution and had also submitted a complaint to the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s office against the intelligence officials responsible for his torture, in addition to confirming in his pleadings before the judges of the Specialized Criminal Court, the torture and violations he had been subjected to since his arrest, and his claim With video clips from the prison hospital and medical reports. Al-Faraj was not sure that any of his complaints had reached the concerned authorities, nor were any of his statements investigated. A death sentence was passed against him and the verdict was approved without taking into account the facts he presented.
According to ESOHR's tracking, Al-Faraj confirmed in complaints and pleadings that he was a victim of torture from the moment of his arrest. Among what he was exposed to:
• Enforced disappearance for two weeks, as he was denied contact with his family to inform them of his arrest.
• Arresting his wife and child with him, blackmailing him and threatening to rape his wife.
• He was held for 625 days in a solitary confinement cell, without visitation or contact until a year and a half after his arrest.
• He was subjected to severe torture, which led to his being transported in a wheelchair several times from the interrogation rooms to the prison hospital.
• He was stripped naked and sexually harassed.
ESOHR notes that the Specialized Criminal Court of Appeal approved the death penalty in January. 2023 In light of the lack of justice, it is not excluded that the Supreme Court has ratified the ruling, and it may be implemented at any moment.
ESOHR believes that Al-Faraj's announcement of the hunger strike raises serious concerns for his life, as information indicated that he was transferred to the hospital.
ESOHR considers that depriving Saud Al-Faraj of his right to self-defence by not investigating the complaints he filed, and issuing a judgment against him despite the violations he was subjected to, comes in the general context of the Saudi government’s treatment of the majority of detainees for political reasons with the utmost severity, and it is also Confirms the lack of confidence in the judiciary and the official human rights mechanisms.