Al Jazeera News :
A cross-party group of British parliamentarians and international lawyers has asked to visit detained female activists in Saudi Arabia to investigate allegations that they are being tortured and denied legal representation and family visits.
In a letter to the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom, MP Crispin Blunt, the head of the group’s detention review panel, asked Prince Mohammed bin Nawwaf bin Abdulaziz to assist them in arranging a visit to Dhahban prison near Jeddah to speak to the activists held there.
“We hope to be able to gather direct testimony from the detainees during our visit in Saudi Arabia,” Blunt wrote on Wednesday, adding the group wanted to also “meet and interview officials responsible for and tasked” with the activists’ detention.
Several international human rights groups, including Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch, have alleged that eight female activists who had campaigned for the right for women to drive have been tortured with electric shocks and whipped with an “egal”, a rope that keeps a male headscarf in place.
The groups’ reports have also alleged that the women were subjected to sexual harassment, threatened with rape and prevented from accessing lawyers.
“The allegations made and recorded by these human rights advocates are extremely damaging to the credibility of the progressive reforms announced recently by the Saudi Arabian government,” the letter said.
Riyadh has rejected the accusations.
“The government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia categorically and strongly denies the allegations made by them. The wild claims made, quoting anonymous ‘testimonies’ or ‘informed sources’, are simply wrong,” the Ministry of Media said in a statement in November.
A cross-party group of British parliamentarians and international lawyers has asked to visit detained female activists in Saudi Arabia to investigate allegations that they are being tortured and denied legal representation and family visits.
In a letter to the Saudi ambassador to the United Kingdom, MP Crispin Blunt, the head of the group’s detention review panel, asked Prince Mohammed bin Nawwaf bin Abdulaziz to assist them in arranging a visit to Dhahban prison near Jeddah to speak to the activists held there.
“We hope to be able to gather direct testimony from the detainees during our visit in Saudi Arabia,” Blunt wrote on Wednesday, adding the group wanted to also “meet and interview officials responsible for and tasked” with the activists’ detention.
Several international human rights groups, including Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch, have alleged that eight female activists who had campaigned for the right for women to drive have been tortured with electric shocks and whipped with an “egal”, a rope that keeps a male headscarf in place.
The groups’ reports have also alleged that the women were subjected to sexual harassment, threatened with rape and prevented from accessing lawyers.
“The allegations made and recorded by these human rights advocates are extremely damaging to the credibility of the progressive reforms announced recently by the Saudi Arabian government,” the letter said.
Riyadh has rejected the accusations.
“The government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia categorically and strongly denies the allegations made by them. The wild claims made, quoting anonymous ‘testimonies’ or ‘informed sources’, are simply wrong,” the Ministry of Media said in a statement in November.
