1.3 CASE STUDY FAROOQ Farooq, a married man with two daughters, is a Pakistani citizen who has been imprisoned in AlHa’ir Jail in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia since 2010 and is currently facing execution by beheading. Before travelling to Saudi Arabia, he was the sole earning member of his family in Pakistan, working as a rickshaw driver in Sargodha, Punjab. Farooq never received formal education and, therefore, was unable to find better employment in Pakistan. However, Farooq needed a more reliable source of income to provide for his family, educate his children, and save enough money to one day get his daughters married. In 2010, two subagents approached Farooq’s father and offered to help his son travel to and find employment in Saudi Arabia for a fee of Rs.150,000 (USD 1,060). Having no other opportunities to improve his family’s meagre living conditions, Farooq sold his rickshaw and everything else of value. The family had to raise some money to meet the full amount and Farooq paid the subagents. They then processed his visa. Farooq’s father was told that they were securing Farooq’s visa through a company. On 16th May 2010, the two subagents took Farooq to Charsadda district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. “This was the last time I heard from my son until one and a half months later when I learned that Farooq was imprisoned in Saudi Arabia and that he had been sentenced to death for drug smuggling. I was shaken,” Farooq’s father told JPP. On the day Farooq was taken to Charsadda, the subagents threatened Farooq’s life and that of his family and forcibly made him swallow heroin capsules. Two days later, they forced Farooq to travel to Karachi with them, where they made him board the flight to Saudi Arabia under severe duress, informing him that somebody will be collecting him upon his arrival in Saudi Arabia. However, when Farooq landed in Saudi Arabia, he was arrested by the Saudi police and was subsequently sentenced to death by beheading. Farooq’s trial and sentencing were in violation of both Pakistani and international laws. At no point after Farooq’s arrest, prosecution, conviction and execution in Saudi Arabia did the Pakistani government contact his family to notify them of his situation, nor did it provide him with any consular assistance. As far as could be determined, the Pakistan government never attempted to contact the Saudi Arabia government with regards to Farooq’s case. Farooq’s case was part of a petition filed by Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) in the Lahore High Court in 2014, on behalf of the families of ten men sentenced to death on drug-related offences in Saudi Arabia. Of the ten men, eight have been executed and the remaining two are on death row in Saudi Arabia. 6