Reports & Researches

(Witness)

The Palestinian Detainees in Saudi Arabia

The Missing Justice

A Documented Report prepared by the

Research Team in the Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness)

September, 2019

Introduction:

"When I saw him, it was like he was living in another world; his hair hasn’t been shaved, nor his djellabah has been changed for over a month. He was in dire need of special medical care”

This is how a wife of one of the Palestinian detainees in Saudi Arabia prisons expressed her husband’s condition out there, which resulted from launching a secret arrest campaign since February, 2019 by the Saudi Arabia Security Forces targeting Palestinians residing in Saudi Arabia.

However, detentions are being carried out by the Saudi Arabia Security Agency, headed by Abdul Aziz Al-Howairini. Various private sources to the Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) have reported that the detainees were not brought before the public prosecution despite that some of them are in collective prisons with detainees of different nationalities such as Al-Hayer, Dhahran and Al-Sha'er prisons.

(Witness) has received several complaints from Palestinian families who said that their sons and relatives had been detained either in detention centers or collective prisons for over several months. Some of the detainees were subject to physical and psychological torture and were therefore transferred to hospitals.

On another note, Witness’s field research team has been intensively monitoring several human rights and press reports that addressed the same issue and unanimously stated that there are dozens of detainees who live severe and critical conditions.

According to testimonies recorded by the families of the detainees, it was obvious that Saudi Arabia authorities have been detaining those Palestinians for undisclosed security reasons, while there have been speculations related to providing financial assistance for the Palestinian martyrs’ families or prisoners in the Israeli Occupation prisons.

First: Procedures followed by Witness with the Official Authorities

Adhering to the professional and objective standards, Witness dealt with this issue as a human rights association concerned with the advocacy of Palestinians rights, and started to raise several memorandums to the competent official authorities in Saudi Arabia requesting to immediately reveal the fate of dozens of Palestinian detainees. Witness has also raised several queries to the offices of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz; King of Jordan, Abdullah IIbin Al-Hussein; the Saudi Arabia Diplomatic Mission to Beirut, the Embassy of Palestine to Saudi Arabia, and the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Palestinian National Authority Riyad Al Maliki asking them to reveal the detainees’ fate and requesting the following clarifications:

1-Names and numbers of the Palestinian detainees.

2-Reasons behind detention, and the background of accusations against them as well.

3-Supervision of legal requirements of detention (arrest warrant, legal representation).

4-Periodic and sufficient prison visits.

5-Locations of detention and it’s compliance of the international standards.

6-Expected role of the Embassy of Palestine to Saudi Arabia being the defender of those Palestinian nationals in Saudi Arabia.

Up until the moment, Witness has received no responses of the correspondents, and according to the available resources, there are no clear interferences and reactions from both of the Embassy of Palestine in Riyadh nor the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; hence, the detainees have not received any legal support from any quarter such as states, embassies or local or international human rights associations.

It was given to Witness, by legal sources from NGOs and detainees’ families, that the approximate number of detainees is about 50 people, including academics, doctors, businessmen and students. Moreover, systematic campaigns of threats continued to prevent dozens of them to leave Saudi Arabia.

Second: Testimonies of the Detainees Families

Witness expresses its grave concern regarding the continuing detention campaigns against Palestinians in Saudi Arabia; however, detainees were subject to enforced detention and extreme violations since February, 2019 as well as being tortured in humiliating ways. According to legal assessments, the continued detention campaigns contain enforced disappearance of some cases, while other detention cases were considered as arbitrary detentions that totally contradict with the International Bill of Human Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Following are some of the documented testimonies recorded by Witness from the Palestinian detainees’ families, and fears behind the arrest campaign:

"We are deeply concerned about the fates of our sons because they are suffering several diseases and they are in constant need of medicines and food supplements.”

"They told us that he was accused for an undisclosed security issue.”

"He spent 6 months in the solitary confinement, and signs of torture were apparent on his body and was therefore transferred to the hospital 3 times.”

"We are fully committed to the state’s systems and we are legally bound. We even have never been charged a traffic ticket.”

"During the last prison visit, which was very short and hardly accepted, he said that he was set to solitary confinement with no means of communication, knowing that authorities were told that he is the sole family breadwinner.”

Major fears expressed by the detainees’ families:

1-Detention to be prolonged without public prosecution.

2-False accusations and harsh sentences to be issued.

3-Lives of some detainees, because of torture, to be threatened.

4-Hard-to-treat psychotic breaks because of the continued solitary confinement.

5-Diseases to be aggravated and possibilities to getting infected by new diseases as a result of depriving detainees from medical treatment and prison visits.

6-Awful disrupt of detainees’ economic and social lives, especially that sons of some detainees are linked directly to the residence of their fathers.

Third: What are the human rights violated by the Saudi authorities?

1-The right to security of person and dignity.

2-The right to not be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

3-The right to humane treatment in detentions.

4-The right to legal personality.

5-The right to a fair trial.

6-The right to a decent life.

Forth: Recommendations

Pursuant to the foregoing, The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness), recommends the following:

1-Calling the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud to an immediate action to end the suffering of dozens of Palestinians arrested by the Saudi authorities.

2-Requesting the international and human rights organizations to an urgent intervention and address the Saudi Arabia authorities to release the detainees.

3-Calling the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to an urgent intervention to disclose the fate of the detainees.

4-Urging the media to highlight the suffering of the detainees.

5-Addressing the Palestinian authority to assume its responsibility toward the detainees, follow up the merits of their detention and addressing it with the Saudi authorities.

Fifth: List of Palestinian detainees’ names documented by Witness:

Recommendations to be followed regarding Enforced Disappearance:

1-Approving that enforced disappearance, whether it have been carried out by traitors or armed unofficial groups, a crime in terms of the national law, and direct punishments must be applied, taking into consideration the crime’s criticality.

2-Applying the terms of the International Convention, accepting the jurisdiction of the Committee on Enforced Disappearance and looking into the correspondences by / on behalf of the victims and other countries.

3-Guaranteeing survivors and those who lost their beloved ones the right to reparation, including compensation, rehabilitation and enforced disappearance to never happen again.

4-Eliminating every amnesty law or impunity such as the statute of limitations.