According to inspections and prisoners’ accounts, the prisons are unhygienic; have insufficient bathing facilities and soap; and often serve food on plastic or newspapers; guards insult the prisoners, especially for being Shia; and elderly prisoners have been forced to stand in the sun every day, said a report by the Supreme Leader’s Office in Saudi Arabia posted on the Iranian Students News Agency on Saturday.
The report also stated that one Iranian prisoner cannot eat solid food because his dentures have been taken away and another Iranian prisoner has been suffering from eye and mouth infections for 40 days.
Most of these people were arrested at religious sites and charged with offenses the Saudi police regard as crimes, but some were arrested on charges of drug possession and are detained at other prisons.
However, the conditions are bad at both types of prisons.
As a result of negotiations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, 10 Iranian nationals who were imprisoned in Saudi Arabia were freed but many Iranians are still suffering under such conditions in these prisons.
The way Iranians are treated is totally discriminatory in comparison with the way that prisoners from other countries, even those charged with theft or murder, are treated, some Iranians who had been detained in Saudi prisons say.
Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization (HPO) advises Iranians to avoid signing any documents if they face any problems with the law since they may be framed by the Saudi police and also advises them to wait until a representative of the Iranian Embassy or the HPO arrives to assist them if they are arrested.
AA/HG
END
MNA