Remaining in Jail Following Expiry of Sentence
Human Rights Watch has previously documented cases in which Saudi authorities did not
release prisoners who had completed their sentences, leaving them in prison for
additional months and years. Often these extended arbitrary detentions were the product
of bureaucratic mistakes.28
Four of the Pakistani former detainees interviewed said that Saudi authorities held them in
detention for periods longer than their sentences. Ghulam recounted that he remained in
prison for 14 months even though he was serving a six-month sentence:
I was sentenced to six months of imprisonment but I had to spend 14
months in prison. I was unaware of what was going on and had no idea
when I would be released. Prison officials are very negligent and often do
subjected to delay in his release because of this. I remember the jail
authorities once misplaced the file of a prisoner and by the time they
discovered the file the prisoner had spent an extra six months in jail. Only
after that did they inform the embassy to deport him. After fourteen months,
the authorities shifted me to Jeddah
Buraiman Prison, where I stayed
three to four days before being deported to Karachi.29
Amir also said that Saudi authorities held him several months over his one-year sentence
for scrap metal theft
re stuck in jail even after they have served
their sentences. We were lucky that we got released from the jail in the end, after spending
30
No Consular Assistance
In the cases reviewed by Justice Project Pakistan and Human Rights Watch it did not
appear that Saudi officials had complied with the obligation to promptly inform Pakistani
consular officials about the arrests of the Pakistani citizens, and the burden to inform
Human Rights Watch, Precarious Justice: Arbitrary Detention and Unfair Trials in the Deficient Criminal Justice System of
Saudi Arabia, March 2008, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2008/saudijustice0308/.
28
29
Justice Project Pakistan interview with Ghulam, November 17, 2015.
30
Justice Project Pakistan interview with Amir, April 8, 2016.
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MARCH 2018