Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — A Saudi man who was arrested in Iraq while looking for his brother has said he cannot understand why he was detained and tortured despite having valid travel documents. On setting foot in Baghdad Al-Bushra Mashhour Al-Ruwaili was apprehended not because of any crime he had committed but simply because he was Saudi. His papers were complete and he had a regular entry visa. He told Makkah newspaper that his predicament began in 2003 when he decided to travel to Iraq to look for his brother Nasser, who had been in Iraqi prisons since 1995 during the reign of former president Saddam Hussain. He was only been able to return to Saudi Arabia recently. He said his brother was accused of killing the driver of the Jordanian ambassador without any evidence. "My brother spent seven years in the prison after which he was sentenced to death," he said. Al-Ruwaili said his brother, the longest serving prisoner in Iraq, was saved by a general pardon issued by Saddam Hussain before American forces stormed the country. He said after his release, Nasser called them to tell them that he was on his way home. "After waiting in vain for many years for my brother to return, I decided to travel to Iraq to look for him," he said. Al-Ruwaili said he obtained a visit visa from the Iraqi Embassy in Jordan and went to Baghdad, where he was arrested. "I did not commit any crime and my papers were in order but I was arrested just because I was Saudi," he said. He said he was sent to the office of the Fifth Division, which was known as the division of death, where he was interrogated by American investigators who started hitting him all over his body after tying his hands behind his back. "The prison guards used to pour cold water on us during winter and put us in barrels full of ice for six hours at least," he said. Al-Ruwaili said all this time he was asked every day if he was a Wahhabi or if he had any connection with the notorious terrorists Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi and Ayman Al-Zawahiri. He said he was kept for 15 days at the Fifth Division before being transferred to the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. "The moment I arrived at the prison they undressed me completely and I was interrogated by female investigators," he said. Al-Ruwaili said he had spent about a month in Abu Ghraib where he was physically tortured and not allowed to sleep. He said: "I used to hear the cries of prisoners night and day. I wished so much that I would die because only death would relieve me from the torture.” He said after that he was transferred to the tent camp, where he spent 45 days. He said: “The camp was made of tents that were surrounded by barbed wire. They were much better than the prisons and we had the feeling that we were free people at last.” He said all 5,000 prisoners at the tent camp were set free on orders by the former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during his first visit to Iraq. Al-Ruwaili said each of the released prisoners was given $25 and papers not to be arrested or questioned for three days. He said during this short period he was able to visit his brother at the Al-Shab prison in Baghdad. "I did not want to come back to the Kingdom because I started to adopt jihadist ideologies because of what I had seen in the Iraqi prisons," he said. He said he tried to connect with jihadists but they did not welcome him. "The jihadists had completely ignored me and my family was pressing me to come back so I traveled back to the Kingdom," he said. Al-Ruwaili said he is now convinced that there is no jihad in Iraq. He said: “What is actually going on there is sectarian fighting. I appeal to our scholars who fill the minds of our youth about jihad to stop doing this.” Al-Ruwaili thanked Interior Minister Prince Muhammad Bin Naif for giving his family a house in Turaif region and asked him to secure the release of his brother from the Iraqi prison where he is currently incarcerated. He also asked the prince to help them find jobs for his brother's sons. He said Nasser, who lived for 14 years in Syria, had 18 sons and daughters from three wives. Most of his children do not remember him because he was away from them for almost 19 years, he said.
