I guess saudis are not that cruel as portrayed…i found this article interesting and decided to share it with you guys…
Come on in … the bread and water is fine
Saudi authorities are using prisoners to extol the merits of jail life as a way to round up the country’s most-wanted men
James Sturcke and agencies
Wednesday December 15, 2004
Infamous for the alleged abuses and torture carried out within its walls, the Saudi prison system is hardly the cradle of restorative justice.
During a month-long amnesty earlier this year, when some of the country’s most wanted men were told they would not face the death penalty, only four militants turned themselves in.
However, in a new attempt to entice the hunted out of hiding, the authorities this week launched a charm offensive, enlisting the apparently willing help of inmates.
A number of jailed terror suspects appeared on national television promoting prison life, with one - on the list of 26 most-wanted Saudis - saying it was better than being at home.
“I swear to God, they (jailers) are nicer than our parents,” said Othman Hadi Al Maqboul al-Amri, who surrendered in June under the royal amnesty.
“We heard things about abuse and persecution that could or could not be believed,” another prisoner, Abdul-Rahman al-Ahmari, said on the documentary from al-Hayer reform penitentiary, outside Riyadh. “But I found al-Hayer totally different.”
Saudi authorities have aired militant confessions and interviews with fathers of wanted men as part of a public relations campaign to rally the public against radicals who have carried out attacks inside the kingdom, killing Saudis, other Arabs and westerners.
The suicide bombings, gun battles and kidnappings have been blamed on al-Qaida and sympathisers of Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden.
The government has not yet put any of the hundreds of jailed terror suspects on trial, fearing a public backlash if death sentences are handed out before exhaustive attempts are made to give militants a chance to repent, according to western diplomats.
The government is desperate to avoid accusations that it is cracking down to please America. Monday’s documentary showed brief footage from al-Hayer jail, a large, clean facility with beds lined one next to the other in one cell.
Abdullah al-Silmi, sitting in a deep yellow armchair, said he surrendered after hearing about the amnesty and watching the televised confession of extremist cleric, Sheik Ali al-Khodeir. “I was awe-struck,” said al-Silmi. “I knew then that I had made a mistake.”
Fowzan al-Fowzan spoke about the constant fear he lived in as a man on the run, especially when he heard police sirens. “You’re so afraid that you jail yourself for fear of being arrested,” he said.
Obaid al-Qahtani said the radicals took advantage of people’s “trusting natures”. He said he unwittingly became a member of a militant group when he gave his car to a cousin, suspected militant Fares al-Zahrani, to sell.
Al-Qahtani said he was badly in need of money to pay his bills and al-Zahrani, a fellow villager, had persuaded him he could sell it. “He kept stalling so he could keep the car with him … and use it for illegal acts without my knowledge,” al-Qahtani said. The car was later found with a wanted man.
