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V. The Aftermath

Torture

Human Rights Watch has spoken in detail with 13 persons arrested in the wake of the Holiday Inn events. Every one of the people we spoke with had been detained by the mabahith and tortured.

Victims related various torture techniques including beatings, electric shock, stress positions, and sleep deprivation. Almost all considered sleep deprivation, lasting up to one week, to have been the most painful experience.

Hasan, the customs official, told Human Rights Watch that he and others were deprived of sleep for two days. “Every two hours, they would ask us to kneel, then squat, then stand,” he said. “Kneeling was hard because of the foot chains pressing between the heels and my lower body.”⁷⁸ Badi gave this account:

As the mabahith arrested me, I said I am ready to answer questions, but please don’t beat me. [In the cell, t]hey put me face to the wall and said, “Don’t move.“ This was about 10 a.m. I stayed there until 5 p.m. I didn’t have a watch, but heard the prayers. The guards paced up and down and talked to the prisoners in a bad way: Dog! Donkey! Cow!

After a while an officer came and took me to the interrogation room. [He said,] “Do you want to talk?” I said, “Of course, that’s why you asked me to come.” There was only one question: “What’s your role in the events?” Then two military guys blindfolded me and started beating me with their fists, on the neck, shoulders, and back. I said I would complain.

They put me back in the cell and forced me to stand again. On the third day I began to bleed from my rectum. I had hemorrhoids at the time, and said maybe it’s them that started to bleed. On the third day I decided to sit down when sleep overwhelmed me. But they would knock on the metal doors when you moved or tried to sleep, making a terrible noise.⁷⁹

Another man, “`Abbas,” said that interrogators tied his legs to a wooden pole then started beating him to make him confess, and, if he didn’t, subjected him to electric shock.⁸⁰

According to Kadhim, the student, Ismaili leaders complained to Crown Prince Abdullah about the arrests and torture, and about two months after the events the crown prince directed the mabahith to stop the interrogations.⁸¹ The led to a number of the arrested being freed, or transferred to regular police detention, but did not mean the arrests stopped. An investigative team was brought in from Riyadh. In early 2001 the security forces took a group of up to 70 detainees to Riyadh and imprisoned them in al-Ha’ir mabahith prison, where the interrogation and torture continued (most detainees were put first in solitary confinement before being transferred to communal cells).⁸² Some of them were then presented in groups of 10, without notice or legal representation, before a judge or panel of judges for secret trial at which all were convicted (see below), and others appear to have been convicted without even that formality.⁸³

Prior to the court sessions, former detainees said, interrogators in Riyadh tortured them to force them to sign confessions. Hasan described to Human Rights Watch how he came to confess:

The torture started at 2:30 a.m. Every 30 minutes, a soldier comes and knocks and says “cleansing time,” then they come and cuff you, blindfold you, and walk you to a different room.  There, they chained one leg, bent behind my body, they extended both arms as high as possible, with one foot touching the ground. I had to hang like this for five to six hours. Then they began to beat me with a stick and cables.

The torture began on my second day. This lasted about two months: interrogation daily, daily beatings.

After one month they brought a witness, a Najrani I knew, who said he saw me in the Mansura. I continued to deny this for one hour. Then even the director came with a cable and beat me. He said all the others from Najran have confessed. I confessed that I was at the Mansura with a Kalashnikov. After that, I answered the interrogator’s questions the way he wanted for three days. I was forced to fingerprint the interrogation [statement].⁸⁴

Kadhim related a similar account of how interrogators extracted his confession:

I was beaten with a stick used to whip animals. I was deprived of sleep for more than 20 days and did not sleep. Thereafter, I could only sit during sleep and prayer. My legs swelled terribly. There was no doctor.

[My interrogator] said, “I know that you did not participate at the hotel, but I need you to confess.” He also insulted our religious leaders, the sayyids and the Da’i, and said we were infidels. He wanted me to say that I fired in the air. After 20 days, my psyche was destroyed; I said, “I’ll give you what you want.” He filled in the answers for me. I said, “I want to sleep and then you can have what you want.” He said, “No, you have to answer now.” So I confessed that I shot in the air and set vehicles on fire.⁸⁵

His interrogator then took him to a judge, at 1 a.m., to authenticate his confession, but he told the judge about the torture. The judge told him not to write anything that he did not do, and went away. “I went back to the mabahith,” he continued.

I wrote another set of words. They made me stand for one day. [My] interrogators the next day began to beat me, and filled in new answers for me: Now, I and [another person] were supposed to have fired in the air.⁸⁶

“Ahmad” told a similar tale of torture:

The mabahith interrogated me in the general prison. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. I was forced to stand up. This continued for one week. The interrogator said, “I’ve been doing this for five years and every single one has confessed. Now, where’s the machine gun?” As he said that, I was put on the floor, chained, and with a boot in my face. The officer said, “Why don’t you confess?” I said, “To what?” He said, “That you used your machine gun trying to kill the prince. We will get witnesses—we will bring your mother and sister.” At that, I lunged for him, but did not hit him. They beat me with a stick and a kind of whip. He said, “Confess that you fired five shots.” I said, “No.” “Confess that you had a gun.” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Confess that you were not mistreated.” I signed with a fingerprint, and they took me back to the general prison. My next interrogator asked me, “How many times did you shoot?” I said, “No, I didn’t shoot.” Finally I signed that I had fired five shots.⁸⁷

Salih recounted his torture and interrogation:

I was at the mabahith 28 days. They poured cold water over me, deprived me of sleep for two to three days, hung me by my wrists, bent my arm behind my back. I was intimidated by hearing other people being beaten. I confessed to being at the Mansura, but not at the hotel.⁸⁸

Karim, the policeman, told Human Rights Watch,

I spent one to two weeks at the mabahith office, blindfolded. They asked, “Where were you on [the hijri date of the Holiday Inn events]? I was forced to stand for two weeks. I slept only leaning against the wall. When I tried to sleep on the floor they came and beat me. Sometimes, they would pour cold water on me to wake me up. The beatings included falaqa [beatings on the soles of the feet], until the blood came. I was blindfolded while they beat me. After about four days, I began hallucinating that my family was with me. It was the only thing that kept me going, thinking of my family.⁸⁹

`Aqil recounted his experience:

I was summoned because two friends who had been arrested had confessed. My interrogator asked me, “Where were you on the day of the events?” I said, “In Abha.” Every time I said that he would beat me with a bamboo [cane], a cable, or his hand. Six days of beatings, and sleep deprivation in the cell by forcing me to stand up. My legs swelled around the third day. My ankles were about two-and-a-half times their normal size, up to mid-calf. Their color was reddish blue.  I couldn’t stand on one leg to relieve the other, because they were chained together.⁹⁰

Secret Trials

After some months in al-Ha’ir prison, some prisoners were subjected to secret tribunals. The Najran mabahith official in charge of the investigations, Ali ‘Arfiji, was present in Riyadh as a prosecutor. Defendants received no prior notice of the proceedings or the precise charges against them, they did not have the opportunity to consult or appoint legal counsel, and they did not have the opportunity to appeal their convictions and sentences. Some were even oblivious to having been tried, and learned of their sentences from their jailers. The Riyadh court sentenced 17 Ismailis to death, and around 65 to life in prison. Defendants did not receive copies of their verdicts.

Hasan, the customs official, told Human Rights Watch about his trial experience:

All of this was about three months after [transfer to Riyadh]. I was brought before three judges, in the old Greater Riyadh Court. The head of Riyadh courts, Abdullah Abd al-‘Aziz or Abd al-‘Aziz Abdullah, who is known throughout Saudi Arabia, was there. I had an idea we’d be going somewhere when I got new clothes, but wasn’t told that we were going to court. [The judge] only asked, “Are these the questions and are those your answers?” I said, “Yes.”

I went back to al-Ha’ir for one week in solitary and then to a room with others in the same case. We were together two years and nine months before a committee from the Ministry of Interior and the mabahith came on 5/10/1423 [December 10, 2002], and informed me that a royal pardon reduced my sentence from 12 to 10 years. This was the first time I knew my sentence. Shortly thereafter, they brought us back to Najran prison. There, the supervisor told me that my sentence was now six years and 250 lashes, reduced from 500 lashes, but the previous sentence did not mention lashes. He said this is a legal verdict, but there I didn’t get to see it. When I got out after serving the sentence, I received a statement that said, “Verdict executed. 18/3/1427 [April 17, 2006].”⁹¹

Kadhim, the student, gave this account:

We were nine months in the Najran general prison, with searches and beatings, before they flew us to al-Ha’ir mabahith prison. We were there about one year and nine months. After 15 days in solitary confinement, we were moved together.

In Riyadh, I and two others were taken to three judges in a court. The judges asked me about my statement and I said, “These are my words and my writing, but it is all wrong.” ‘Ali ‘Arfiji was there.⁹² “Do you deny everything in here?” the judge asked. I said, “Yes.” He said, “Sit down, tell us the truth.” I told the truth, including the torture. ‘Arfiji then said, “There are witnesses against him.” I said, “If there are witnesses, then they are coerced.” The judge looked like someone who was about to sentence me to death, glowering at me, so I signed my statement as authentic.

The next day we went to the Expedited Court,⁹³ and another judge asked, “Are these your words?” I said, “Yes.” I was then taken back to the mabahith prison, to a large room. My friend and I refused to confess, so ‘Arfiji said, “There are four of your colleagues, three of whom have confessed but one still hasn’t.” So we all changed our confessions. I now said not I and [my friend] but I and the four others had fired shots. Then we went to another judge in court and he accepted our new confessions.⁹⁴

Salih, the engineer, recalled his trial and sentencing:

In Riyadh, we went to a judge at the Expedited Court, and we told him what happened in mabahith detention. The judge returned my colleague to jail, because he denied what was in the interrogation file. After two years and eight months in Najran’s General Prison, I went back to Riyadh’s al-Ha’ir, where I verified my statement in front of three judges. There were no other proceedings. Without prior notice, two months later, I was told I’d been sentenced to death. I spent two [more] years in al-Ha’ir, and then went back to Najran around Rajab 1424 [June 2003]. There were maybe 90 Ismaili prisoners coming from Riyadh to Najran in three waves. In Shawwal 1424 [December 2003] a royal decree reduced my sentence to 10 years.⁹⁵

Ahmad gave this account of how he learned of his sentence, although he had never been to a court:

From Riyadh we went back to Najran in a military plane. After two weeks in the General Prison, a supervisor with four stripes came with a piece of paper that said my sentence was five years in prison and 500 lashes. It was written on a computer, with maybe 13 names on it, in the form of a table. It did not have a letterhead and it was not a legal verdict.  I said, “I have not been sentenced by the Ministry of Interior.” He said, “This is your new sentence.” After one week, another guy came and verbally told me that my lashes had been reduced to 250. Every week I received 50 lashes.⁹⁶

`Aqil told his story:

After six to seven months in Narjan’s General Prison, I was taken to al-Ha’ir’s mabahith prison. The first 16 days I was in solitary confinement. Then I was taken to the Greater Court of Riyadh. Ali al-Arfiji, head of Najran’s mabahith, was there, acting as a prosecutor. I was the only defendant in court. I said, “I was beaten and forced to sign a confession.” Arfiji said, “There are witnesses against you.” I signed the minutes of the session and went back to al-Ha’ir. I was there about two years and two months. While there, we received a royal amnesty. It was the night of Eid al-Fitr, 30/9/1423 [December 5, 2002]. We were told that 17 of us sentenced to death had their sentences commuted to 10 years in prison, and the rest of us had their prison sentences halved. These were two separate amnesties. I did not know my sentence until that time. I signed a paper saying that my sentence was reduced from 12 years to 10 years. Three days later, I was back in Najran prison, where I stayed for another three years. A week after returning, a supervisor said my sentence was now six years and 300 lashes. Only three of us were lashed in public. On 22/3/1427 [April 21, 2006] I was released. There is no written verdict for me. I don’t know whether my sentence was issued from Najran court or Riyadh’s Greater Court.⁹⁷

A series of royal pardons commuted the death sentences to prison terms and also reduced the lengths of prison sentences, with 10 years the longest remaining sentence. During his visit to Najran in October 2006, King Abdullah issued the most recent pardon, releasing 10 of the 17 initially sentenced to death from prison. The remaining seven are serving the last two years of their 10-year sentence.

Firings and Forced Transfers

Local authorities, with the coordination of the central government, also forced at least 449 Ismaili state employees to quit or to take up positions outside the region, often in parts of the kingdom furthest away from Najran. Many resigned. Others were fired without the option of relocating. King Abdullah has not taken any remedial action to allow fired or relocated workers to return to their jobs in Najran.

In a petition to then-Crown Prince Abdullah written around 2003, Ismaili shaikhs complained of “the transfer of employees from the region outside it” as well as “a lack of employment of persons from the region and their racist treatment, and imputing empty charges against some of them in order to fire them from their work.”⁹⁸

One of those fired was the Ismaili mabahith officer described in Chapter IV, above, who was arrested and held for eight-and-a-half months for not contributing to the round up of participants in the Holiday Inn events. According to the man’s relative interviewed by Human Rights Watch, despite a long record of service the officer was fired immediately after being let out of detention.⁹⁹

Karim, the policeman who had been jumped, blindfolded, and tied up by colleagues in the immediate aftermath of the Holiday Inn events, simply for being Ismaili, and was then tortured in mabahith custody (see Chapters IV and V), kept his job after his time in detention but was transferred out of Najran. He told Human Rights Watch in December 2006:

I was transferred to Tabuk, in the north. Work there was normal. Then with some wasta [connections] I got to go to Riyadh. But the order also said that I was to become a traffic cop. Then I went to ‘Asir for one year. I sent my files to [Assistant Minister for Security Affairs] Prince Muhammad bin Nayef with medical reports of my parents. I am the oldest son and I support them. The last time I tried to get relocated back to Najran was about two months ago. I never received a reply.¹⁰⁰

Another Ismaili affected by transfer was “Muqtada,” a border guard. He told Human Rights Watch:

I had a certificate of appreciation from the governor of the region, three from [Fahd] al-Sudairy [the previous governor], and two from [Prince] Mish’al. I was promoted in 1416 [1995]. In my file there is only one absence, in 1407 [1987] for one day, that’s it. Then the hotel events occurred and I was transferred. I was not at the hotel or at the Mansura mosque. About two months after the events, 50 of us [border guards] were transferred, me to the Kuwaiti border. They said it would only be for three months, because they needed us there. The original order said that all 50 of us should go to Salwa on the Qatari border, but then an extraordinary order came [transferring me to the Saudi-Kuwaiti-Iraqi border]. This is the furthest point from Najran. In 1424 [2003] I managed to transfer from Ruq’i to Abha, in ‘Asir, where I still work. I asked to go back to Najran, but they said that a paper from Riyadh military intelligence came back saying “we do not recommend” his return. Normally, every four years there’s a promotion. When the hotel events occurred I was in for promotion, but I had no luck.¹⁰¹

Badi, the hospital worker arrested from his workplace the day after the Holiday Inn events (see above), was told on the day he went back to work after getting out of detention that he was being transferred:

The director came and said, “Congratulations, there will [be judicial] procedures.” I was told not to come back to work, until they got the all-clear. I remained at home three months, on half salary. This is the regulation until you are declared not guilty. I was the only one transferred from the hospital. Some others were perhaps taken after me. About 40 persons in total from all the Ministry of Health departments were transferred. The mabahith wrote back to the hospital that there was no problem. I went back to work for two to three months, but in [the month of] Ramadan, the order for my transfer to Baha came. I went to Baha. The Baha mabahith came to the hospital to question me, twice. In 1422 [2001] I was sent to Jeddah, and in 1426 [2005] I was sent to ‘Asir. About one week ago, I was sent to the most remote possible place. You need a landcruiser to get there.¹⁰²

An Ismaili who studied the transfers told Human Rights Watch:

Most of [those transferred] did not even participate in the demonstration [at the Holiday Inn or at the Mansura]. Over the past year or so [since 2005], a very small number, 10 to 15, have been able to come back to their jobs in Najran. They are from one village, and they spent a long time submitting applications to the ministries to be able to get back. Thankfully, transfers have now stopped and Najranis are not being sent away any more.¹⁰³

Hasan, the customs official jailed for participating in the Holiday Inn events, told Human Rights Watch that when he got out of prison he had to surrender his passport. “I don’t know how long I am banned from traveling,” he said. “I was fired from work. Before the verdict was issued, I got half my salary, 1,000 riyal. After the verdict, I got a letter firing me from my job at customs. Now I do not work and do not have the capital to start a company.”¹⁰⁴

Former prisoner Ahmad said, “The day I got out [of prison], I was taken to the mabahith. There, they told me I was banned from public employment. It was 18/1/1426 [February 27, 2005]. A separate piece of paper said I was also banned from travel abroad for two years.”¹⁰⁵

Those who were students at the time of their arrests were unable to complete their studies after their release from prison. Sahir told Human Rights Watch:

I was one of those sentenced to death for the events in Najran. Then my sentence was reduced, and I was pardoned by the king in the last pardon. I have tried to resume my studies, but have had no luck. I have one year left in the King Abd al-‘Aziz University in Jeddah. The university told me they cannot reinstate me after five years or so have passed, and that’s why I am here in Riyadh to talk to the minister of higher education to get special permission.¹⁰⁶

“Abu Ghaith,” “Fadil,” and `Aqil, students at King Khalid University in Abha at the time, were unable to resume their studies after they were interrupted by prison terms.¹⁰⁷

King Abdullah pardoned Khadim during his visit to Najran in October 2006. However, the mabahith imposed a two-year foreign travel ban on him and prohibited him from attending any public celebrations. When Kadhim wanted to resume his studies in physical education at King Khalid University in Abha, the university turned him down, because he had “surpassed the legal timeframe” allowed for suspending studies.¹⁰⁸ He had needed just nine more credit hours to graduate.¹⁰⁹

Arrests for Speaking Out

Saudi authorities largely succeeded in their efforts to keep the details of events leading up to the Holiday Inn clash and its aftermath from public scrutiny both inside the kingdom and abroad. There has yet to be a full accounting. Only recently has information slowly emerged as the authorities released prisoners from that period and groups of Ismaili elders and intellectuals petitioned the king, prompting the two Saudi human rights institutions—the National Society for Human Rights and the Human Rights Commission—to look into their complaints.¹¹⁰

In addition to real and purported participants in the events of April 23-24, 2000, Saudi authorities imprisoned, with and without trials, those who dared to speak publicly about the events, as well as about official discrimination, suppression of their religious practices, arbitrary arrests, and torture. The mabahith arrested “Amin” a year-and-a-half after he had alerted an Arab news channel about the Holiday Inn events on the day they took place, although Amin did so from a town hundreds of kilometers away from Najran. He told Human Rights Watch that in mabahith detention:

I spent about 10 months to one year in a cell, alone, underground, and talked to nobody except for my interrogator and the judge, twice. It was miserable and I began talking to the ants in my cell. You couldn’t go to the toilet more than twice [a day], you couldn’t drink water when you wanted, so every time the soldier let me, I drank as much as I could. After two months, the judge asked me to confirm that I had talked to Al Jazeera. I did. After about 10 months, the judge told me, “I have sentenced you to seven years,” and indicated that he had received the verdict from the government.¹¹¹

The prosecutor brought charges against Amin for four offenses: 1) calling Al Jazeera, 2) disobedience to the ruler, 3) disparaging the reputation of the kingdom abroad, 4) and a poem he wrote.¹¹² His prisoner card cited “secret security charges” as the reason for his imprisonment.¹¹³ Following his conviction, the judge transferred him to the General Prison. His father was able to secure his release after he had served three years of his seven-year sentence.¹¹⁴

The mabahith arrested Husain on December 24, 2003, from his office and confiscated his computer.¹¹⁵ After spending seven months in solitary confinement, he and two others, Nabil, and Shibli, were tried in late July 2004 on charges of “belonging to [web] forums engaged in violating security and damaging the nation.” Their sentences were two years in prison and 750 lashes each.¹¹⁶ Husain told Human Rights Watch that in court:

they accused me of 10 things: Instigating people to write on the internet, instigating violence, promoting the Ismaili faith (madhhab), and so forth. There was no evidence at all. It came after I issued a report on the internet about the forced dispersal of Ismaili officials to other regions of the kingdom. All they said was that Ali al-Ahmad, the opposition Saudi in America, took our writings and made something with them. I was sentenced to two years and 750 lashes. I asked for the court verdict, so that I could respond to the charges, but they said it was secret and they never gave me the verdict. It was important to get it when I filed my appeal against the case at the appeals court in Mekka. I did anyhow, but the verdict was confirmed.¹¹⁷

Almost a year-and-half after the Holiday Inn events in Najran, the news of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington DC, and the high proportion of Saudi citizens among those who carried out the final attack, prompted the government to invite more foreign journalists to visit the kingdom. A reporter for the Wall Street Journal, James Dorsey, after several months reporting on a variety of topics in the kingdom, visited Najran and heard first-hand from Ismailis about the Holiday Inn events as well as their concerns about official discrimination.

In his January 9, 2002 article on Najran, Dorsey wrote:

Shiites and Ismailis, who tend to inhabit poorer areas of Saudi Arabia, charge that they have been subject to discrimination for decades … Ismailis … also want the government to free 93 Ismailis … who were arrested last April after riots protesting the arrest of an Ismaili cleric and the raiding of a local mosque in predominantly Ismaili Najran. Unrest in this city of 200,000 people has been fueled further by the authorities’ reluctance to appoint local tribesmen to key government positions, as well as the transfer of some 1,000 local civil servants to jobs elsewhere in the kingdom. Tribesmen say the government’s policy is aggravating local unemployment, already running at an estimated 40%.¹¹⁸

Dorsey also cited a local official of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV), the religious police, as saying that “[Ismailis] are infidels because they do not follow the Sunna [example of the Prophet Muhammad] … They don’t believe that the Quran is complete and they hate the Sunnis.”¹¹⁹

Following publication of Dorsey’s article, the Saudi mabahith arrested two of his sources. Shaikh Ahmad bin Turki Al Sa’b, whom Dorsey quoted in the article, was arrested on January 15, 2002.  Al Sa’b claims that he was subjected to unacceptable treatment upon arrest, including beatings all over his body. A medical record three weeks after his arrest by a doctor at King Khalid Hospital in Najran noted that Al Sa’b vomited blood on February 9, 2002 and had an inflamed esophagus and an inflammation of the stomach. The doctor wrote that he considered Al Sa’b “unfit for flogging at the present time.”¹²⁰ A court sentenced Al Sa’b to seven years in prison and hundreds of lashes, but the authorities released him prior to the end of his sentence.¹²¹

Another source for Dorsey’s article told Human Rights Watch that he was arrested in another city, flown to Najran, and kept for four months in the mabahith there before “one day, they just said, ‘You’re free to go.’” While in detention, he said, officials only asked him about the article while torturing him:

I was not allowed to sleep for seven days, that was the most difficult torture. I just lay there and said to them, “Cut off my hand, my head, I do not care, but I cannot get up.” I was hung upside down, beaten on the feet, and made to wipe up my own blood on my hands and feet. I never went to court.¹²²

The authorities also arrested Murad and sentenced him to 18 months in prison and 500 lashes for his contact with the Wall Street Journal reporter.¹²³

A number of Ismaili elders went to see Crown Prince Abdullah after news emerged of the death sentences for 17 Ismailis implicated in the Holiday Inn events (see above). The Ministry of Interior had all petitioners arrested, thrown in prison for four months, and flogged with 60 lashes. Even the Sudanese employee of the print shop that had prepared the petition to Crown-prince Abdullah and his assistant was arrested and then deported.¹²⁴

In another case, Saudi border guards arrested a fellow border guard, an Ismaili of the Harith tribe within a year of the Holiday Inn events. A court sentenced him to three years in prison for having remarked  to a colleague in conversation that Ismailis would take revenge if those arrested after the Holiday Inn events were executed.¹²⁵