Overview

Saudi Arabia has responded to threats and acts of terrorism since 2003 by indefinitely detaining thousands of suspects, all the while providing many of them with an opportunity to participate in a program of religious counseling aimed at “rehabilitating” them. At least 1,500 detainees who participated in this program have been released. Foreign governments have praised the Saudi government for the ostensible success of the rehabilitation program in thwarting terrorist activity, largely overlooking the fact that the participants were not convicted criminals but rather men held in long-term detention without charge.

In October 2008—five years after the first series of detentions—Saudi authorities announced that a batch from the thousands of suspected militants remaining in detention, 991 of them, would go on trial. Since then, only scant information has come out about the judicial proceedings. On July 8, 2009, the Ministry of Justice announced that a court had convicted 330 of the men of a variety of offenses linked to acts of violence, issuing one death sentence.

This report assesses, first, the religious counseling program that Saudi authorities offer to suspected militants in prison; second, the systematic, indefinite detention of suspected militants by the domestic intelligence service, the General Directorate for Investigations (mabahith), in violation of the international prohibition of arbitrary detention and the requirement in Saudi law that authorities refer a detainee to court within six months of his arrest; and, third, the trials that began in 2009 for some of the suspects.

Saudi Arabia has made what appears to be a late, but necessary, decision to refer long-term detainees suspected of involvement in violent acts to court. However, the lack of official information and the absence of public observers at these trials cast significant doubt on their fairness, underlined by indications that defendants do not have legal assistance and adequate time and facilities to prepare a defense. This is despite promises that officials made to the media in 2008 that the proceedings would be open and fair. The verdicts should be appealed in open court. Saudi Arabia should act to ensure that the proceedings afford defendants all guarantees of a fair trial, including by ensuring that each detainee has qualified legal counsel of his choosing and adequate time and means to prepare a defense, and allowing the defense to present evidence and to challenge the prosecution’s evidence. Saudi authorities should open hearings to the public, and allow observers to monitor the fairness of the trials.

Saudi Arabia should further ensure that all remaining mabahith detainees are either released or brought to trial on the basis of charges of cognizable criminal offenses and in proceedings that guarantee their due process rights. In any event, all detainees should immediately be brought before a court able to rule on the legality of their detention and to order their release, and the authorities should immediately comply with relevant rulings of the Board of Grievances (Saudi Arabia’s administrative court) and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, both of which have reviewed some of the detentions and have found them arbitrary. Compensation should be provided to those who have been detained arbitrarily.

Foreign governments, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, that praised Saudi Arabia’s religious counseling program for ostensibly thwarting terrorist activity, have a special duty to monitor the judicial proceedings for compliance with international fair trail standards.

Recommendations 

To the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

• Saudi Arabia should release mabahith detainees or charge them with cognizable criminal offenses and bring them to trial. All detainees should immediately be brought before a court that can rule on the legality of their detention and that can order their release. All mabahith detainees who successfully challenged their detention at the Board of Grievances should be immediately released.
• Saudi Arabia should act to ensure that court proceedings afford defendants all guarantees of a fair trial, including by
• Ensuring each detainee has qualified legal counsel of his choosing;
• Ensuring each detainee has adequate time and means to prepare a defense;
• Allowing the defense to present evidence and to challenge the prosecution’s evidence and witnesses in court;
• Opening hearings to the public; and
• Allowing observers to monitor the fairness of the trials.

To Saudi Arabia’s Bilateral Partners

• Monitor the judicial proceedings against suspected militants detained by the mabahith, and publicly question any shortcomings in providing the defendants with fair trials.

Methodology

Saudi authorities have not granted Human Rights Watch the access to the country we requested in October 2008 to monitor the trials of suspected militants. During an official Human Rights Watch visit in November 2006 Saudi authorities reneged on their initial agreement to allow a delegation to visit prisons run by the mabahith. Due to the government-imposed barriers preventing Human Rights Watch from conducting in-country research, this report relies on telephone interviews with Saudi families of detainees, in-person interviews with families often living outside Saudi Arabia, and accounts provided by the Saudi and foreign media and Saudi human rights activists. It is also informed by the interviews Human Rights Watch conducted in 2006 with Ministry of Interior officials about Saudi counterterrorism policies. We have not disclosed the names of detainees, their family members, or human rights activists we interviewed for fear that they may face retaliation.