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| Arabia |
| Torture victim sues Saudis |
| 2003-04-30 |
| A British man arrested and tortured in Saudi Arabia is suing the Saudi royal family for £2m in the British courts. Ron Jones was held for 67 days by the ministry of the interior in Riyadh after he was injured in a bomb explosion in the Saudi capital in March 2001. Despite suffering blast injuries the 50-year-old Scot was taken into custody and tortured by officials who tried to get him to confess to planting the bomb. The explosion was part of a wave of anti-western terrorist blasts in the past two years for which seven other British men were detained without trial and tortured by the Saudi authorities. The Alk Runner 8 A Guardian investigation last year established that the men, all connected to an illicit ex-pat drinking scene, could not have carried out the explosions. Despite representations by the prime minister and the foreign secretary, the Saudi authorities have refused to release them. Mr Jones's action, the first hearing of which takes place on May 23, is the first of its kind to be heard in Britain. The Saudi government says British courts do not have jurisdiction in the case. What's good for the Belgiums is good for the Brits The writ names the Saudi ministry of the interior, led by Prince Naif, and Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Aziz, the man that Mr Jones says led the torture, and details his ordeal during his detention. The Foreign Office has successfully served the writ on Prince Naif but the writ on Col Aziz was returned to the British embassy because Saudi officials said he was unknown to them. "Who? Never heard of him!" According to evidence gathered by a Human Rights Watch delegation that visited Riyadh, Prince Naif acknowledged that "an investigator had exceeded his limits and may have been a little harsh in his treatment of Mr Jones". Hanging him from the ceiling and beating the soles of his feet after he got blown up qualifies as a "little harsh" to me. |
| Posted by:Steve |