Saudi Government prepares for more deplorable Human Rights abuses, against backdrop of US weapons sales and deliveries

Letter to the Saudi Arabian Human Rights Commissioner
On the Case of ‘Amir ‘Iyada – December 16, 2011 – by Human Rights Watch

To: Dr. Bandar al-‘Iban
Chairman Human Rights Commission
Riyadh – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Your Excellency,

Human Rights Watch urges you to intervene in the case of ‘Amir ‘Iyada, and five other co-defendants, sentenced to have their right hands and left feet cut off. Such a sentence should not be carried out in any circumstances, since it constitutes torture, in violation of the kingdom’s international human rights obligations. Moreover, in this case, allegedly grave violations of the defendant’s right to a fair trial cast serious doubt on whether the man sentenced to undergo this punishment is guilty as charged.

We ask you to assign ‘Iyada and the others a competent lawyer, as the Commission has done in other cases, to request a retrial of ‘Iyada and his five co-defendants, and to publicly denounce the punishment imposed as unlawful torture. We also ask you to regularly and frequently visit ‘Iyada and the other defendants in Malaz prison, to ensure that they suffer no adverse consequences from the publicity given their case.

The charter of the Human Rights Commission, a government ministry, tasks it with “receiving complaints on matters of human rights, verifying them, and subsequently taking the necessary action required” (art. 5.7.) as well as “to ascertain that the respective government entities have complied fully with the rules and regulations related to human rights practice” (art. 5.1.), “to pursue government agencies to ascertain its compliance on international treaties [sic]” (art.5.6.), and gives it the right to visit places of detention (art. 5.6.).

Details of the Case

On January 25, 2011, Riyadh’s General Court sentenced ‘Iyada and five other defendants to have their right hand and left leg amputated for participating in the crime that Sharia legal scholars call hiraba, or armed (highway) robbery. The court found that on the morning of October 9, 2010, the defendants cornered three employees of the Tamimi supermarket on Riyadh’s King Fahd Road as they were transporting the week’s proceeds of SAR4 million (about US$1.07 million) in the boot of their car, that they threatened the employees with a gun, and that they took the money from them. No one was physically harmed.