Ismaili Leader’s Sentence Reduced After International Protest
(WASHINGTON DC) May 28, 2002 .. In a move to curb international criticism of its poor human rights record, the interior ministry ordered the reduction of the sentence of Ismaili tribe leader Shaikh Ahmed Turki Al-Saab from seven years and torture by 1500 floggings to one and a half year imprisonment, sources close to the case told SIA News Monday.
Al-Saab was arrested January 15, a week after the Wall Street Journal published his comments regarding official religious apartheid against his Ismaili Muslim minority. In Early February Al-Saab was seen in King Khalid hospital on a wheelchair due to torture he endured in Najran Mabahith prison.
He was sentenced to seven years and 1200 floggings in a Najran (South) court Tuesday April, 23, and was not allowed a lawyer or legal council. He was sentenced based on a Mabahith officer’s request of the judge who approved the sentences in few minutes.
In addition to Al-Saab, there are 103 Ismaili religious prisoners mostly held in Al-Hair maximum security prison and Al-Malaz prison in Riyadh since April 2000. Among them are prominent Ismaili religious leaders Shaikh Mohamed Al-Makrami, Mohamed Al-Saadi both in their early 70’s.
Torture is endemic in Saudi prisons and has been criticized by the United Nations commission last month in its Geneva meeting. The leading Saudi human right organizations, the Saudi Institute for Development blamed Interior Minister Naif for all torture cases in the kingdom. The institute said the minister is known to have ordered torture and has the power to stop it but he did not.
The Ismaili Muslim minority are subject to an official and systemic campaign of transfer, arrests, humiliation, subjugation, and cultural and economic deprivation. Over 3000 Ismaili were transferred out of Najran, and over 100 remain in prison, 17 with death sentences, according to the institute. The Institute contacted the Wall Street Journal and the US Ambassador Robert Jordan to secure the release of Al-Saab, SID Said.
The tension in the Ismaili region of Najran has increased following the government attack on the main Ismaili mosque in Al-Mansourah which resulted to clashes that left two Ismailis dead and dozens injured.
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