In addition to due process violations, some of the Pakistani detainees and their family
members described poor prison conditions during their detention, including overcrowding,
unsanitary facilities, lack of beds and sheets, as well as poor provision of medical care.
One former detainee described his detention experience in the southern province Jazan
was overcrowded and the conditions of the prison were deplorable. Often there was no
water for days and there was no proper sewage system. The bathrooms were so unhygienic
and filthy that we dreaded
Two former detainees and one current detainee said that Saudi prison authorities had
subjected them to ill-treatment, including slapping, beating with a belt, and shocking with
an electrical device during interrogations. The family member of another detainee said that
authorities had beaten her husband with sticks following his detention.
Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which Saudi Arabia ratified in 1988, it
has an obligation to inform Pakistani consular officials when they arrest a Pakistani citizen.
he competent authorities of the receiving State
shall, without delay, inform the consular post of the sending State if, within its consular
district, a national of that State is arrested or committed to prison or to custody pending
trial or is detained in any other manner. In the cases Justice Project Pakistan and Human
Rights Watch reviewed, however, it did not appear that Saudi officials informed Pakistani
consular officials about the arrests of the Pakistani citizens, and the burden to inform
Pakistani authorities largely fell on detainees and family members. Justice Project Pakistan
wrote to Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials about all of the Pakistani detainees
they learned about but did not receive any response to their inquiries. Furthermore, Justice
Project Pakistan researchers said that the family members they interviewed generally did
not know which government agency to contact when their relatives were arrested in Saudi
Arabia.
Based on interviews conducted with former detainees, current detainees, and family
members of detainees, most of the Pakistanis did not seek consular services from the
Pakistani embassy in Riyadh or consulate in Jeddah at any point during their detentions
because they did not believe Pakistani officials would offer any assistance and they did
not want to waste limited money on such phone calls. They said that Pakistani officials
rarely if ever visited Saudi prisons, unlike representatives of other countries. Four of the
defendants who did contact Pakistani embassy officials said they did not provide any
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