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| Arabia |
| Sampson told Canadian officials of torture |
| 2003-08-13 |
| EFL Documents obtained by the CBC reveal that William Sampson, the Canadian who spent 31 months in a Saudi prison, repeatedly told Canadian officials that he was being tortured. The documents released to CBC’s the fifth estate under the Access to Information Act suggest that the government dismissed his allegations of torture as speculative, right up to the time of his release last Friday. On three occasions, Sampson had insisted strenuously to Canadian representatives that he was being physically abused while being held in a Saudi Arabian jail. Sampson was among eight westerners released last week in a clemency decree by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. They had been rounded up in 2000 after a British engineer working in Saudi Arabia was killed by a car bomb, blamed by Saudi authorities on a turf war among Western liquor dealers. Had to be westerners, there are no terrorists in Saudi, right? The westerners, including Sampson, initially confessed, but most later retracted the confessions, claiming they were extracted under torture. The Canadian government consistently refused to accept the torture accusations, though it is now clear Sampson made the allegations during meetings with Canadian visitors. From the beginning of Sampson’s captivity, government officials, including Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, were skeptical of the torture accusations. And why, you might ask, didn’t the Canadian government believe that the Saudi’s were torturing him? Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said the allegations were raised with the Saudis. "We always took the position that any Canadian being in a foreign prison has to be treated properly," Graham said. "What assurances we were given by Saudi authorities was that any torture was contrary to the Qur’an, and would be contrary to their religious beliefs, and therefore no torture would be used, but we still raised it with them." British captives released from Saudi Arabia say they are planning to sue the Saudi government for false arrest and abusive treatment at the hands of their captors, and that William Sampson will be a part of the lawsuit. I think I would include the Canadian government as part of that lawsuit, but that’s just me. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 Actually, I think the lawsuit against the Canadian govt. would have to be a separate lawsuit. |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-8-13 1:23:34 PM |
| #1 Tic toc |
| Posted by: Lucky 2003-8-13 1:11:25 PM |