RIYADH, 8 December 2006 — The US-based Human Rights Watch reported yesterday that it was still waiting for a response from the Saudi authorities to a request to visit prisons in the Kingdom for a first-hand study of the situation.“The request was made over two months ago,” said Christoph Wilcke, Human Rights Watch researcher for the Middle East and North Africa. Wilcke, who speaks fluent Arabic, arrived in the Kingdom as part of his mission to observe the criminal justice system, the rights of women and children, and the treatment of domestic servants. “During my stay in Riyadh I received hundreds of calls from everywhere about people’s grievances,” he said. “A majority of them related to maids.”
The news of the organizationÂ’s presence in the capital spread quickly. Many, including the relatives of detainees, rang up Arab News from abroad to get their own message out through the media. Others said they were unable to contact Wilcke as he had closed the line due to the flood of phone calls.