I. Lack of Due Process in Saudi Courts
Justice Project Pakistan interviewed Pakistanis who said that in nearly every stage of the
court procedures they or their family members experienced violations of their right to a
fair trial.
Inability to Inform Others Following Arrest
Article 36 of
s Law on Criminal Procedure grants that any detainee should be
ed of the reasons of his detention and shall be entitled to communicate with any
person of his choice to inform him of his arrest. 1 In practice, however, Saudi authorities
did not provide the means or opportunity for Pakistanis to inform others of their arrests in
a timely manner.
Ten of the 21 detainees in the 19 cases examined in this report said that Saudi officials
held them a week or longer following their arrest without allowing them to contact family
members or seek consular services from the Pakistani embassy. Most said that they were
only able to contact family members eventually by paying other detainees to use
contraband phones smuggled into prisons and detention centers.
Abbas, who served an 11-month
aiman Prison for holding a forged
work permit, said he had no contact with his family members until seven days after his
While I was in the CID [Criminal Investigation Department] detention
center, I had no means of contacting my family. When the officials shifted me to the central
police station, I took a phone from another cellmate who had it in his possession illegally.
2
I called my family from that phone and informed my brother abo
Another former detainee, Ejaz, served a 10-month sentence in Jazan Central Prison for
transporting drugs in his taxi. He said that Saudi authorities arrested him in November
2014 at a checkpoint
from Jeddah to the
southern province of Jazan. He said he did not know that the luggage contained drugs.
Following his arrest, he said that he had to wait 20 days before he could inform his family
members.3
1
Law of Criminal Procedure, http://fac.ksu.edu.sa/salissa/blog/70885 (accessed August 30, 2017).
2
Justice Project Pakistan interview with Abbas, Faisalabad, January 12, 2016.
3
Justice Project Pakistan interview with Ejaz, Faisalabad, November 10, 2015.
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MARCH 2018