Muhammad Al-Ahmadi, Ali Samman and Ibrahim Khudair Okaz/Saudi Gazette
BAGHDAD/MAKKAH — Authorities at a maximum security prison in Baghdad have told prisoners, including three Saudis, that they will be executed before Eid Al-Adha, informed sources claimed. The three Saudi prisoners are Abdullah Azam Al-Qahtani, Ali Hassan Fadhil Al-Shehri and Faisal Ahmad Al-Faraj, sources said. Meanwhile, the United Nations' representative in Iraq has asked the Minister of Justice to provide information on why several prisoners from different countries have recently been executed. Sources told Okaz that the minister held a meeting with his officials to respond to the questions asked by the UN representative. Al-Qahtani's lawyer challenged the death sentence given to his client because Al-Qahtani was investigated on the outskirts of Baghdad at Sharaf Camp, an illegal camp, after which he was sentenced to death, according to prison sources. Iraqi authorities fabricated some charges and accused Al-Qahtani of threatening national security, his lawyer alleged. However, the lawyer said all the alleged events took place while Al-Qahtani was in prison, which means he could not have been involved. In Al-Rusaifah Prison, there are two Saudi prisoners including Shadi Musalam Al-Mala Al-Saadi and Badar Oufan Rahaq Al-Shammary. Authorities at Al-Hoot Prison in Dhi Qar Governorate, Al-Nasiriya, referred the files of Saudi prisoners to Yasser Sleem Yasser, a prison officer. It reported that seven Saudi prisoners have been on hunger strike for the past 11 days. Fawaz Mukhlif Ouda, one of the prisoners, fainted Sunday because of hunger. The other prisoners are Majid Abdullah Saud Al-Deraibi, Khalid Ibrahim Al-Reyaee, Waleed Ayed Al-Qahtani, Awad Muhammad Ali Al-Qahtani and Ali Salim Al-Maree. A Saudi prisoner at Sousa Prison in Kurdistan told Okaz over the phone that the Iraqi parliament said it would not approve the extradition agreement between the Kingdom and Iraq. Ibrahim Al-Jafari, head of the national coalition in Iraq, said in a statement on Iraqi TV that the agreement would be approved only after the Iraqi-Iranian agreement had been signed. The Saudi prisoner also quoted a spokesman of the Iraqi Ministry of Justice as saying that Saudi prisoners could leave the country a month after Iraq and the Kingdom sign the extradition agreement. He also said Saudi prisoners used to contact Dr. Hamad Al-Hajri, who was responsible for maintaining files on Saudi prisoners in Iraq, for help. However, Al-Hajri has recently been unavailable on his cellphone. The prisoners also contacted Dr. Muflih Al-Qahtani, chairman of the National Society for Human Rights, but no real support has materialized. The NSHR reassured prisoners that it would do its best to help them, according to the Saudi prisoner in Kurdistan. He said that there are 36 Saudi prisoners in the same prison and they were charged with crossing into Iraq illegally. Some of them have been sentenced to 15 years in prison while some were sentenced to death after being convicted of terrorism offenses. He noted there were six Saudi prisoners in Baghdad who have been sentenced to death while seven others in Al-Nasiriya Prison have gone onhunger strike to protest the way they have been tortured. The prisoner added: “Saudi prisoners in Al-Nasiriya Prison demanded that they be referred to Sousa Prison in Kurdistan. “ASaudi prisoner named Jaber Al-Maree is in a Baghdad prison with 150 Shiite prisoners. He has been subjected to all forms of torture and every time he calls he cries and complains about the way he has been treated. “He was one of the prisoners involved in Abu Ghraib scandal. He was tortured by Americans and now by Shiites in Iraq.”
