Saudi prisoners ‘not kept after sentence completion’

Manama: A Saudi human rights watchdog has said that no prison in the Eastern Province is keeping prisoners whose sentences have expired.

“All Saudis whose time was up after serving their terms have been set free,” Ebrahim Asri, the acting head of the Human Rights Commission office in the Eastern Province, has said. “The foreigners who are there are in the last stages of the procedures to have them deported following the expiry of their sentences. Their sponsors are cooperating to finish the procedures ahead of their departure from the kingdom,” he said, quoted by local daily Al Sharq on Monday.

The activist said that the Human Rights Commission had made 140 visits and field tours that included the public prison and detention centres since establishing an office in the Eastern Province.

“We have visited detention and rehabilitation centres for men and women in the cities of Dammam and Al Ihsa and reported our observations to the concerned authorities. There were positive responses to our remarks, but we still needed to talk to other authorities,” he said.

Asri said that the inspections were based on a decision by the cabinet to allow the human rights watchdog to make unannounced visits and to file reports to the competent authorities.

“There is regular coordination between us and the administrations of prisons and rehabilitation centres in the Eastern Province,” he said.