Adnan Al-Shabrawi Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Instead of granting bail to a Saudi prisoner to attend the funeral of his dead father, the Jeddah Prisons Administration allowed the body to be brought to the prison for the son to see before burial. The unusual event took place when a Saudi national died while his eldest son was serving a life sentence for dealing drugs. The wife of the deceased refused to allow her husband's body to be buried until her son got one final look at his dad. The deceased's family submitted a request to the Prisons' Administration to release the son on bail for 24 hours so he could bury his father but the circumstances of the case prevented this from happening. However, the mother insisted that the son should see his father, according to the father's will. She prevented the burial from being carried out until her son saw his father for the last time. When all efforts failed to allow the son to be released temporarily, the director of Jeddah Prisons, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Abdullah Al-Shahrani, made several telephone calls to the concerned authorities and reached a solution that satisfied the demands of the inmate's mother and his late father's will, without violating regulations. The prison administration agreed to allow the father's body to be brought in an ambulance to the ward in which the son was held. An ambulance was prepared for this purpose. The son was able to have a last look at his late father and bid him farewell from the prison building. Prison staff and inmates in the ward offered their condolences to the son. He expressed thanks and appreciation to the prison administration for their humanitarian gesture and pledged to Allah that this is a lesson for him to return to the right path. “It was not possible to release the prisoner so he could attend his father's burial due to the distance, place, nature of the crime he is convicted of and his prison term. We reached this solution after discussions with the officials concerned to meet the mother's demand. She kept visiting the prison and refused to allow her husband to be buried until his son saw him,” said Brig. Gen. Al-Shahrani. Meanwhile, Abdullah Bin Marei Bin Mahfooz, chairman of the Committee for Caring for Prisoners and Released Inmates (Tarahum), said the committee pays special attention to humanitarian cases. The Prisons Administration in Jeddah contributed effectively to meeting the demands of prisoners and their families. He said the committee interacts with the families of prisoners and provides numerous humanitarian services, including financial, social and psychological assistance.
