JEDDAH — An Iraqi appeals court has overturned the death sentences against three Saudis who were convicted of carrying out acts of violence and had been linked to terrorist and deviant groups. Ma'ad Al-Abedi, who is in charge of legal relations at the Iraqi Embassy in Riyadh, told a local newspaper over the telephone that the court commuted the death sentences against the three to jail terms ranging from 10 to 15 years. He also said the Iraqi appeals also suspended the death sentence against another Saudi prisoner, Abdullah Azam Al-Qahtani, because it found the death penalty was unfair for the charged leveled against him. He said the court was reviewing some verdicts after new confessions made by the Saudi prisoners. He said he received reports about some Saudi prisoners staging a hunger strike. Dr. Rasheed Massli, President of the Human Rights Society in Geneva, said the society has information about mistreatment of Arab prisoners in Iraq through direct contacts with the prisoners and phone calls from their families. An Iraqi security source put the total number of Arab prisoners in Iraq at 426. Among them are 100 Syrians, 90 Saudis, 12 Tunisians, 15 Algerians,23 Libyans, 22 Jordanians, 19 Sudanese, 24 Yemenis, 40 Palestinians, 13 Moroccans, 65 Egyptians and 1 Lebanese. — SG
