The new criminal procedure code includes a prohibition against torture and degrading treatment, as well as recognition of the right to a lawyer during criminal investigations and trials.

The memorandum was sent to Crown Prince Abdullah on May 6 and made public today.

"The new criminal procedure code contains some important improvements, but it's not clear whether they're being implemented," said Hanny Megally, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "The Saudi government should answer to some fundamental questions about how the justice system works now."

In January 2003, the Saudi government for the first time allowed an official Human Rights Watch delegation to visit the kingdom. The reform of the criminal justice system was one of the main areas of discussion with Saudi ministers and other senior officials.

In its memorandum to Crown Prince Abdullah, Human Rights Watch criticized the practice of holding suspects in prolonged incommunicado detention, when interior ministry operatives typically conduct abusive interrogations, and called for the prompt access of lawyers and family members to detainees. Human Rights Watch also highlighted the interior ministry's practice of forcing detainees to sign pre-release statements that they were not mistreated and that they will remain silent about the details of the interrogation process. This practice should be immediately investigated and discontinued, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch also recommended that all judges in the kingdom be instructed to order investigations if suspects credibly allege during trials that torture or other abuse was used to coerce confessions, as required by the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Saudi Arabia became a party to this treaty in 1997, and its provisions can be invoked before Saudi courts.

Closed trials should be the exception and not the rule in Saudi Arabia, and interested parties-including families, defense lawyers and other legal representatives, and consular officials-should always be informed of the place and date of trials, Human Rights Watch said. In no case should legal representatives be prevented from attending a trial and representing their clients.

The Human Rights Watch memorandum cites the Canadian government's complaint in April 2002 about the trial and appeal proceedings of its citizen William Sampson, one of the seven foreigners accused of carrying out bombings against Westerners in 2000 and 2001. is trial "was held in secret and even [Sampson's] lawyer was not informed," the foreign affairs department said it had learned. "Mr. Sampson was not legally represented at the two subsequent appeals either. The Saudi authorities have assured us Mr. Sampson would have legal representation, and there were no suggestions that the trials would be held in secret." It took Canadian authorities three more months to obtain official notification from the Saudi government that Sampson had in fact been secretly tried and sentenced to death.

"Transparency in the criminal justice system is an important benchmark of reform, and authorities should make clear how the public can obtain information about criminal trial proceedings and court judgments," Megally said.

Article 182 of the new criminal procedure code states that if a trial has been conducted in closed session, the court's judgment should be read in an open session. It indicates that the public has a right to the most pertinent information about all trials, including "the name of the rendering court, its date, names of the judges, names of the litigants, the crime subject of the action, a summary of claims or defenses submitted by the litigants and the supporting evidence and arguments, the stages of the action, the text of the judgment, reasons and legal bases thereof, and whether it was rendered unanimously or by majority vote."

Human Rights Watch also expressed concern about the availability of legal assistance for the thousands of people currently awaiting trial in Saudi Arabia. In January 2003, the director of the interior ministry's prisons administration, Major General Dr. Ali bin Hussein al-Harithi, told Human Rights Watch that there were some 13,000 men and women in Saudi prisons who had not yet been convicted. About 6,000 of them were migrant workers and other foreigners.

The criminal procedure code establishes the right of every accused person to seek legal assistance during investigation and trial, although it does not explicitly guarantee the right to a lawyer for those who cannot afford one. The government should explain the steps that have been taken to guarantee this right, Human Rights Watch said.