Saudi Arabia Blocks Promised Access to Prisons

(Riyadh, December 18, 2006) � The Saudi government is refusing to grant a Human Rights Watch delegation access to the country’s detention facilities despite numerous assurances from senior government officials that such visits could take place, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch informed Saudi authorities of the detention facilities it wanted to visit on October 3, prior to its current visit to the country, its first in nearly four years. Human Rights Watch called on the Saudi government to grant its delegation full access to prisons, women’s and juvenile detention facilities, and shelters for foreign women in Buraida, Dammam, Jeddah, Najran and Riyadh.

“We’re pleased that Saudi officials have talked to us candidly about human rights in the Kingdom, but disappointed that they haven’t yet fulfilled their commitments to let us visit detention facilities,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, who led the delegation last week.

Human Rights Watch began its visit to the kingdom on November 27 and has held meetings with Saudi ministers and corrections officials over the past 10 days. On November 30, Saudi authorities permitted Human Rights Watch to visit a small number of prisoners in just one ward of al-Ha’ir correctional facility (Islahiya al-Ha’ir) south of Riyadh, but blocked the delegation’s attempt to return to the facility on December 2, despite promises of full and repeated access by the assistant director of prison services for the Riyadh region, Muhammad bin Nasir.

This press release from Human Rights Watch, which now has a team in Saudi Arabia, complains that the Saudi government, not withstanding its earlier assurances, has not allowed the group to visit certain facilities.