RIYADH: The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has contacted the Saudi Embassy in Damascus asking it for further information on a complaint it received from a Saudi claiming he was detained without official charge and subjected to torture. Al-Watan Arabic daily reported Saturday that the complaint from the man, who was named only by his initials, also stated that a number of Saudis were being held in Syrian prisons without charge. The man told the NSHR that he was stopped and searched by Syrian police while traveling from Lebanon and that officers put a machine to his head, told him to put his hands behind his back and put a cloth bag over his head. After being taken to a state prison with “no clear reason for his arrest other than that he was a Saudi”, the man said in his complaint that he was subjected to “the most awful forms of torture”, including electrocution, sleep deprivation, continuous beatings, and being subjected to cold water treatment and hung up against the wall. According to Al-Watan, the complaint continues by saying that there were “dozens” of other Saudis detained at the same facility who were also treated in the same fashion and were prevented from contacting their embassy. Haitham Manna', spokesman for the Arab Committee for Human Rights, told the newspaper that approximately 300 Saudis were arrested on suspicion of terrorism and for other reasons “during the war”. “200 of them remain at centers of investigation,” he told Al-Watan. “During the recent events we heard of cases of arrest and detention but we have only had four complaints concerning torture from released prisoners.”
