Nearly all the Pakistani detainees, former detainees, and their family members described
widespread due process violations by the Saudi criminal justice system and Saudi courts,
including long periods of detention without charge or trial, no legal assistance, pressure to
sign confessions and accept predetermined prison sentences to avoid prolonged arbitrary
detention, and ineffective or pernicious translation services for defendants.
Due process violations were most consequential for defendants involved in serious cases
such as drug smuggling and murder. In Saudi Arabia, judges apply a 1987 ruling by the
as well as provisions of the 2005 Law on
Combatting Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which prescribes the death
penalty for drug smuggling. The law allows for mitigated sentences in limited circumstances.
Saudi Arabia executes more Pakistanis than any other foreign nationality annually, nearly
all for heroin smuggling, including 20 in 2014, 22 in 2015, 7 in 2016, and 17 in 2017.
Of the 21 Pakistanis involved in criminal cases, 15 faced drug-related crimes and
authorities charged 11 with bringing in drugs at an international airport. Of the eleven
individuals, Saudi courts have given three men death sentences, four individuals had
prison sentences ranging between fifteen and twenty years, one had a prison sentence of
four years, and three remained on trial. According to family members, drug traffickers in
Pakistan forced under threat of violence four of the eleven individuals to serve as drug
mules. The family members stated that courts were not interested in the circumstances
under which individuals brought drugs into the country and did not attempt to investigate
or appear to take into account claims of coercion during sentencing.
In all the non-death penalty cases, judges did not afford defendants an adequate
opportunity to mount a defense. Interviewees said that during their first court hearings
Saudi judges presented them with predetermined convictions and sentences based solely
on police reports and asked defendants to accept the rulings and sentences. If they chose
to dispute the ruling, the courts permitted defendants to submit a written defense, but
nevertheless the courts repeatedly summoned them for additional hearings in which
judges presented the same predetermined rulings, leaving detainees with the impression
that not accepting sentences would mean indefinite pretrial detention. Five of the
Pakistani defendants accepted the rulings during their first court hearing, and all of the
AUGHT IN A WEB
2