“Evidence Shows That The Saudi Regime Is A Police State Masquerading As A Theocracy”
By Saudi Civil & Political Rights Association,
http://www.acpra9.org/
Date: August 22, 2010.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
http://www.acpra9.org/news_view_75.html (English)
http://www.acpra9.org/news_view_73.html (Arabic)
To: The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud
We commend the steps you have taken towards reform, and remind you that the effort – in spite of its good intention and its magnitude - will be windswept, unless it’s protected by further strategic steps. These steps first and for most must include obliterating the disease-causing bacterium, which is despotism. Social, educational, municipal, or economic reforms-unless built on a democratic system of governance that emerges from the principle of the people’s stewardship over the government- can easily be demolished. In other words, these reform initiatives are precarious as long as people are disenfranchised from the political process, because enfranchising people can deter corrupt despots who usually hinder reform.
Since the Gulf war (1990 ), democracy advocates have been sending evidence after evidence to the leaderships that shows that the Saudi regime has been continuously and systematically violating fundamental human rights. Especially the rights of the accused and prisoners which are systematically violated in spite of signing many international human rights conventions. In addition, the Saudi judiciary continues to legitimize these unjust practices which lethally and systematically violate human rights. All these violations have been highlighted in the last statement issued by the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA) a few weeks ago, which titled: “The non-independent judiciary is one of the pillars of injustice that produces violence, how could its secret tribunals be trusted to render justice?” Sent to the Royal Court on Sunday, 4th of July 2010, proves that the control of the Ministry of Interior (MOI) has transformed the political system into a police-state style.
Please find further evidence of this case, in the attached memorandum:
(Evidence Shows That The Saudi Regime Is A Police State Masquerading As A Theocracy).
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques:
For that we put before you these demands and suggestions, and we remind you that the people are still waiting for you to seize the opportunity before it’s too late. We hereby reiterate our call to establish a fact-finding committee to investigate human rights abuses and to hold all perpetrators accountable; including senior princes, judges, investigators, secrete police officers, and employees. In fulfillment of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to its slogan of applying Islamic jurisprudence, signed international human rights conventions, the principle of judicial independence, the guarantees of fair court trial, and the Convention against Torture.
In conclusion, we remind you that this statement is the third petition by human rights activists to complain about the Ministry of Interior, they call for the establishment of a fact-finding committee to investigate the Ministry of Interior’s lethal human right abuses. This petition was preceded by two other petitions:
First: "We demand to open the file of human rights and call for holding the Ministry of Interior accountable " which was sent on Wednesday, April 18, 2007, express mail receipt no. ee105757925sa.
Second: “We call for establishing a fact-finding committee to investigate human rights violations by the Saudi Interior Ministry for three reasons.” Which was sent in 21 January 2010.
Respectfully,
The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA)
D. Abdulrahman Hamid Al-Hamid
President
For more information call the coordinator:
Fahad Abdulaziz Alorainy
Mobile#: 00966502566678
email: fahadalorani@gmail.com
Executive Summary Of The Memorandum:
(Evidence Shows That The Saudi Regime Is A Police State Masquerading As A Theocracy)
First: The Ministry of Interior Is Exposed By Arbitrary Detention, Therefore It Resorts to More Than Twenty Methods to Tame and Suppress the People.
As a general rule all arrests, in a police state but a tribal regime like Saudi Arabia, are arbitrary because arbitrary detentions- just like secret court trials – are the most important weapons of any political system based on injustice and oppression. In Saudi Arabia, a few cases of arbitrary detention couldn’t be imagined, because determining the number is contingent upon transparency and rule of law; such as the presence of a lawyer during interrogation and trial, clear charges, judicial independence, and fair court trial.
Individuals who have been imprisoned on political charges since the Gulf war (1990) are more than one hundred thousand, and as of now there are between thirty and fifty thousand political detainees in Saudi prisons. We do not claim that there are hundreds of prisoners of conscience who are arbitrarily arrested and detained for the peaceful expression in TV channels, newspapers, or the Internet. We do not claim there are thousands prisoners, but we can very comfortably argue that the percentage of arbitrary detention cases is no less than 99% of all the cases.
The Ministry of Interior (MOI) systematically and deliberately exercises arbitrary detention for two reasons. Firstly, because it is an effective mean to suppress political dissidents through cruel solitary confinement, as prisoners languish in indefinite incommunicado detention until “they renounce their political activities” according to ruthless judge. Second, the Ministry of Interior resorts to arbitrary arrest when twenty means of repression fail to mute human rights advocates.
There are more than twenty methods applied by the Ministry of Interior to suppress and tame people in order not to be exposed by the arbitrary detention, these methods can be summed up as follows:
The Ministry of Interior’s established rule and logo: terrorize human rights advocates before they expose you. When a criminal wants to kill a person in secret, the perpetrator must gag the victim’s mouth so he can’t shout. In addition, MOI usually occupies human rights activists and political reformers through harassing their families. We can cite a known harassment which occurred to ACPRA member, Dr. Abdulkarim Al-Kathar, and ended with the arrest of his son, Thamer, more than four months ago, on Wednesday, March 3, 2010.
One of the methods of the Ministry of Interior is to lure activists into snares in order to entrap and discredit them, and consequentially distract their activities by endless efforts to defend themselves in unfair court trail. Fahd Al-Orini’s imprisonment in the narcotics prison is only an example we know of numerous cases that are only known by God and the minister of interior. Moreover, secret-police (i.e., the Directorate of General Investigation, DGI) agents threaten to assassinate political prisoners and human rights advocates in order to intimidate them, and then diverting them from their activities. For all of these facts, the Ministry of Interior’s record must be verified to be actually free of political murders, abductions, and enforced disappearances.
Frequently, secret agents pursue rights activists in unmarked cars as one of the means of subduing the people and to make them bow to the living conditions in the kingdom of silence. Furthermore, other means include annoying telephone calls that try to lure human rights activists, flamboyant surveillances , defamation, and fabrication of charges. In order to blackmail and then discourage political reform advocates.
One of the method of the Ministry of Interior in suppressing the people is secret destruction of political dissidents by isolating them from their relatives, families, and loved ones. MOI then uses their relatives as instruments to pressure them, after isolating them from society it’s to lethally destroy them. In addition, MOI’s secret agents infiltrate clerics, university professors, human rights advocates, and the traffic police.
The Ministry of Interior always blocks websites that deal with human rights, political reform, and civil society issues; such as "the Platform of Dialogue and Creativity," and "Human Rights Monitor in Saudi Arabia," "Human Rights First Society in Saudi Arabia," and ACPRA websites. It also imposes travel bans on human rights and political reform activists without court rulings, and then blackmail them by offering to lift the travel ban if they agreed to repent and renounce their activities.
The threat of imprisonment for minor issues, through summoning up whistleblowers who expose corruption or write about a financial theft in newspapers or websites, then young reporters maybe beaten, intimidated, and forced to sign a pledge not to return. An effective method to silence people is the threat of dismissal from jobs, several years ago the Saudi regime issued a statement to the people that anyone who dares to speak out against the state policy will be dismissed from work, and consequently will be deprived of livelihood for his children.
The Ministry of the Interior effectively controls university lectures, speeches, and mosque sermons. Hence, no university can approve a program of lectures without the consent of the Ministry of Interior, and no mosque preacher can discuss any issue freely without seeking permission from the Ministry of Interior. One of the means that ensures compliance of the political opponents is the deprivation of monthly income by dismissing them from their jobs. The return to jobs, however, is conditioned upon silence and relinquishment of their political rights, as what happened to the members of the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights in 1993, hundreds of judges, and university professors.
The tide of repression and clergymen of hypocrisy struck political reform, freedom of opinion and expression, and democracy by a distorted religious discourse. This corrupt religious discourse imbues calls of human rights and political reform as a heresy and secularization, and describes civil society as a fight against God and the prophet. Furthermore, it struck the principles of citizenship, pluralism, and tolerance by distorted religious texts that spread hatred among people, especially among Sunnis and Shiites, and publically curse the Shiites. One of these policies is the policy of divide and rule, through the dissemination of religious hatred which weakens the sense of citizenship and the breaks up the country’s unity.
The Ministry of Interior, has not only clamped down on the free and popular civil-society activities, but has also crushed the reform leaders who are the country’s free wide-opened eyes. They should be those who hold authorities like jurists, scholars, ombudsmen, preachers, university professors, intellectuals, those involved in public affairs, and journalists. Unfortunately, the oppressive regime has succeeded in marginalizing and silencing them. Meanwhile, MOI- through its controlled media- highlighted poor, hypocrite, suppressed leaderships. It also opened the way for insincere and double-faced spectra. These artificial leaders have absorbed the corrupt reality, and produce articles and commentaries that entrenched the features of the oppressed community.
The evidence of the horror of systematic repression is the coalition of some deceived and unsuspecting clerics to devise a religious discourse that violates the rights of women. This corrupt religious discourse has paralyzed half of the society in accordance with the culture of concubinage and harem under the guise of maintaining ethics. That is due to the fact that once women won their fundamental rights, then they could breed free generations that refuse humiliating and fight for their political and civil rights. The Ministry of Interior spreads fear in all strata of the society in order to restrict people in their own personal affairs, and leave the talk and interest in public affairs. That led to killing the spirit of dignity, freedom, and pride in the hearts of the people.
The Ministry of Internal defames political reform advocates by a double-faced discourse that uses charges that are for domestic consumption, and opposite charges that are for foreign consumption. MOI addresses the local public opinion by a discourse that accuses human rights advocates of secularism, liberalism, and modernity in order to discredit them before the people. At the same time, MOI addresses the Western public opinion by a discourse that imbues human rights advocates as uncivilized militants, anti-Western, terrorists that support the resistance in Iraq. Western countries, especially the United States of America, know that this is an outright lie, but they see - in terms of pragmatism, at least - that dealing with a despot Saudi ruler with absolute authority is better than dealing with a constitutionally elected ruler.
All of these horrible means of oppressing the people are protected by law, such as the cloak of “work of sovereignty” law, which gives DGI detectives and officers carte blanches to investigate and practice torture. Under the work of sovereignty law, the perpetrators of systematic violations of human rights aren’t subjected to accountability and prosecution.
Second: When Detention Becomes the Solution, Prisons Turn Into Centers For Torture and Harassment:
When the Ministry of Interior is unable to silence political dissidents through the aforementioned means of oppression, arbitrary detention becomes the rule. MOI arrests and detains people without a warrant or court order, because it can’t take the risk of investigating and prosecuting political reform advocates while they are free, then they can expose repression methods and lethality of human rights violations. Hence, arbitrary arrest becomes the solution, and torture becomes its tool.
All international conventions and Islamic laws require informing the family of the accused upon arrest, and inform him of the charges against him immediately after his arrest. These Saudi laws, however, have been promulgated only to mislead the international community because they aren’t applied in the cases of arrest. The general rule – as practiced by DGI - is to abduct a person in the street, on way to his office, or as he is going to the mosque. The aim of such outlaw practices is to intimidate the relatives of the detainee and terrorize the general public, in order to make it difficult to prove human rights violations.
Islamic and international laws, which the Saudi government declares its commitment and application, require that the search and arrest must be authorized by the court. Secret police detectives, however, search, confiscate belongings, and arrest individuals without warrants and without witnesses to the search process. This unchecked authority facilitates fabricating evidence and the theft of property by corrupt elements in the police force. During the arrest and detention, the authority does not inform the detainees of their rights, for example the prison authority refused the entry of the "Criminal Procedure Law" copies into prisons, as what happened in Riyadh and Qassim prisons, as reported by eyewitnesses. The goal – as it seems –is that the Directorate of General Investigation (DGI) detectives and prison wardens continue violating rights of suspects and prisoners. Therefore, we wonder what are the benefits of the existence of written laws that criminalize torture and protect the rights of the accused and the prisoner? If these provisions are not applied, it is obvious to conclude that these laws are only promulgated to only defraud international human rights organizations.
The Criminal Procedure Code (Articles 4 and 64) guarantees the right of every prisoner to a lawyer present with him during the interrogation and the trial. The Ministry of Interior, however, insists on depriving the defendant of access to a legal counsel during the interrogation and the court trial together is a rule as an obvious example in this regard.
Interrogating prisoners and the accused is handled by DGI’s detectives although the text of the Criminal Procedure Code (Article 14) states that interrogation must be conducted by Investigation and Prosecution Bureau. However, the subordination of the Investigation and Prosecution Bureau to the minister interior destroys - definitely - its credibility, impartiality, and fairness because the interior minister is an open adversary and not a judge. Indeed, the Ministry of Interior has repeatedly violated the Criminal Procedure Code through long-term detention beyond six months as stipulated in Article (114) of the law, and there are thousands of detainees who are languishing in prisons for years without court order.
A frequent phenomenon in the Saudi prisons is that the inmates would remain in custody even after the end of their harsh sentences, prompting many international human rights organizations to write about these cases. As well as the deviation of prison goal from its sole goal of rehabilitating offenders to the task of restraining and torturing to extract confessions through coercion that are acceptable in court. Torture is a building block in the structure of the police state, and those who believe that the Ministry of Interior wants prison reform are delusional. Indeed, torture in Saudi political prisons went beyond interrogation to destroying political opponents through ingraining the culture of terror. Hence, Saudi prisons have become incubators for the production of rebellion, hatred, and tension.
One of these means is the assassination and moral destruction of political prisoners, through planting exotic diseases or putting drugs inside the political prisons in order to break political dissidents’’ will, integrity, and reputation in the hearts of the nation's youth. One of the known models is Mr. Abdulaziz Al-Moammar, a famous Saudi nationalist who contracted a strange disease in prison and passed away shortly after his release. DGI deliberately incarcerates political reform and human rights advocates in the prisons with offensive criminals who are accused of rape, adultery, drugs, and murder in order to break the will of human rights advocates and destroy them.
Among such practices that violate human rights in Saudi prisons is to lure young people in custody into signing coerced confession on side charges in order to blackmail them and to control their future. One of practices is conditioning political prisoners release from prison on relinquishing their civil and political rights. Even if they remain for decades in detention, they will never be freed unless they sign pledges of humiliation to refrain from eschewing political evils, and to obey their "guardian" in absolute obedience.
In the Saudi prisons, hundreds of forgotten prisoners who are held without court ruling such as prisoners accused of Alkhobar bombing and other prisoners from Najran. Moreover, there are hundreds of scholars, university professors, and intellectuals who have been languishing in prisons without charges and without court appearance. The Ministry of Interior throws peaceful political leaders in prisons; whose only crimes are to advocate the rule of law, democracy, and people’s guardianship over the government; instead, MOI fabricates charges of supporting and financing terrorism against them.
On of the most serious violations of human rights is the extra-judicial executions, i.e., without public and fair court trial. For instance, harsh judgments had been rendered against hundreds of Juhayman Al-Otaibi’s followers who had been accused of seizing the Mecca’s grand mosque in 1980. Tens of the accused were sentenced to death without fair court trial, which reflects despotism and the unchecked authority of a few individuals who control the people’s affairs. One of these models is death, torture, or assassination in prison, such as what had happened to the officer Saud Al-Moammar, the pilot Wasfi Al-Madah, the officer Abdulrahman Al-Shamrani, and Khalid Mohammed Al-Nazhah.
These violations include forced disappearances of political dissidents without public inquiry into the causes; to the contrary, MOI intimidates and warns their families not to talk about their loved ones’ plights or ask about them. The forced disappearance of Dr. Abdullah Al-Jorian and Bdah Al-Angari are clear models for this kind of practices in Saudi Arabia. Another violation of human rights is abducting or murdering political dissidents abroad like the story of the famous Saudi political dissident, Nasir Al-Said, who is one of known models of abductions, disappearances, and assassinations. The exact numbers of these cases are only known by God and the minister of interior.
Imposing discretionary death penalties on perpetrators in cases of wounding victims which are not worth a death penalty such as the execution of Abdullah AL-Hudhaif , who is one of the cases discretionary executions which are only known by God and the minister interior. One of these serious violations is the Ministry of internal’s exploitation of the global war on terrorism to go after peaceful opposition and advocates of political rights through the control of the Ministry of Interior over State organs; such as education, universities and Islamic Affairs. The Ministry of Interior suspected - as did the West – that violence could only be eliminated through by military and police methods. They didn’t realize that violence is a product of the repressive failed police state, which suffers from the trilogy of despotism: injustice, oppression, and corruption.
Third: The Forty Methodological Breaches of the Judicial Independence Principle:
These are the features of the Ministry of Interior lethal violations of human rights, and the Saudi justice flagrant abuses of human rights have been explained by advocates of democracy in several books and articles. Just recently, ACPRA pointed out forty breaches of the judicial independence principle in its petition sent to the royal court on July 4, 2010, titled: “The non-independent judiciary is one of the pillars of injustice that produces violence, how could its secret tribunals be trusted to render justice?”
Fourth: The Result (The Fields Harvest):
This is the police state, a natural product of congestion, extremism and violence; its most important features are:
1. The role of the Ministry of Interior has been inflated until it has become the whole state.
2. Neglecting the citizens’ general security.
3. The role of people’s security agencies has become intimidation.
4. Doesn’t the evidence prove that Saudi Arabia is controlled by the secret police (i.e., a police state).
5. Production of religious extremism.
6. The police state model is a natural producer of violence because it is the most lethal to human rights.
7. Finally, Saudi Arabia’s membership in the Human Rights Council has become similar to “applying the Islamic jurisprudence” logo.
Fifth: ACPRA Calls For Peaceful Political Struggle In Order To Achieve Democracy:
ACPRA calls upon people from all strata and spectra, including all human rights advocates, lawyers, jurists, and concerned citizens, to forge a new alliance. This new coalition must be established according to a reform strategy similar to those practiced by other nations who achieved democracy, namely:
1. Reaching a consensus that the only framework for all political activities is peaceful struggle until achieving democracy, enfranchising our people into the political process, and reaching a new leadership concept. Where a ruler is merely an elected agent working for the people, instead of a despot ruler who enslaves the people, destroys the country, and squanders resources.
2. Activists must focus on top priorities like judicial independence and demanding judges to abide by the international standards of justice in prosecution, arrest, and imprisonment for any human being.
3. Recognize that the focus should be on political - not civil - rights because it is the gateway for success in this life and the hereafter.
4. Beware of “divide and rule” policy which has been used by reform opponents to drag activists into secondary issues and side conflicts.
5. Activists must work through groups and human rights associations even if these assemblies are not authorized by the government. These non-government organizations (NGOs) can effectively document human rights violations; and expose all perpetrators including interrogators, officers, directors, senior princes, clerics, and judges. These NGOs can then expose human right abusers in the media in preparation to present all of them in public court trials.
6. Keep away of dissuaders from false scholars, leaders and organizations who are deployed in all spectra who resorted to prayers instead of sacrifices. All activists must be aware of discouragers, recidivists, desperate, frustrated, and predators who aren’t willing to give any sacrifice, and who aren’t able to blend with collective actions; regardless to their knowledge, stature, rhetoric, and activity.
7. Engaging in peaceful struggle in order to win civil and political rights which requires making tremendous sacrifices.
This is the lifeline that would rescue us from the abyss of the absolute police-state rule in order reach the highlands of democracy. Furthermore, this strategy is the solution for both government and individual violence. If we can enfranchise the people into political process , then the nation would become guardian over its rulers, in charge of its own affairs , and rulers must obey the nation through its elected representatives.
