Prisoners of Conscience

Unknown fate of prisoners of conscience in a Saud prison sparked a mysterious fire

The fate of the prisoners of conscience in the Al-Malaz prison of the Saudi regime is still unknown after a prison fire broke out in mysterious circumstances.

The fire resulted in the death of three prisoners and the injury of 21 others from Ward 7 in Al-Malaz Prison, as a result of an unknown fire. There are a number of prisoners of conscience in prison.

And the official news agency “SPA” quoted a statement of the Prison Authority, revealing that a fire broke out at dawn on Thursday, in Wing No. 7 of the General Administration of Al-Malaz Prison.

As a result, three people were killed and 21 wounded in the ward, the agency said, without specifying their names, stressing that the inmates were immediately evacuated and emergency ambulance services were provided to the injured, and they were taken to hospital for treatment and medical care.

It stated that an investigation was conducted into the accident to find out its causes and take systematic action on it.

The Saudi authorities did not issue any comment on the issues of the prisoners and their names, nor statistics on the prison, nor did the human rights NGOs concerned with political prisoners make a comment about the fire so far.

There are fears that the Saud authorities intentionally invented the fire in order to kill prisoners of conscience, knowing that the incident shows the authorities’ disdain for the conditions of the detainees in their prisons.

Since he came to power, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has transformed the prisons of the authorities in the Kingdom into human slaughterhouses and mass graves. Those who enter them are subjected to the worst forms of torture and abuse due to ill-treatment and medical neglect.

Many prisoners of conscience have died in the prisons of the Saudi authorities since Muhammad bin Salman came to power, including: Sheikh Fahd Al-Qadi, Sheikh Suleiman Al-Duwaish, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Ammari, writer Turki Al-Jasser, and Major General Ali Al-Qahtani.

He also died inside the prisons of Saudi authorities: the popular artist Muhammad Bani Al-Ruwaili, the young man Hassan Al-Ribeh, Sheikh Saleh Al-Damiri, Ahmed Al-Shaya, Bashir Al-Mutlaq, and Muhammad Rassab Al-Hassawi.

It is believed that other names may have died and were not disclosed by the Saudi authorities.

Bin Salman uses repression with all his opponents and all the citizens of the Kingdom, as he rules the Kingdom with an iron fist through the detention campaigns he supervises and through the physical and psychological torture of detainees in prisons.

Over the past two years, the Kingdom has witnessed the arrest of hundreds of activists and human rights activists, who apparently tried to express their opinion that opposes the Kingdom’s changes, amid human rights demands to reveal their fate and provide them with justice.

Many international organizations called for an international investigation to be conducted into the conditions of prisoners of conscience in Saudi prisons, especially in light of the ill-treatment and torture they are subjected to.

The organizations have strongly condemned the poor conditions of prisoners of conscience in the Kingdom, which has a poor record of treating detainees opposed to the regime, including suspicions of torture and medical neglect.

It also called for an independent international investigation into the poor conditions of the detention of dissidents in Al Saud prisons, and the authorities in the Kingdom ignored the demands calling for providing them with health care and stopping violations of ill-treatment and forms of psychological and physical torture against them.

And human rights organizations – including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – have revealed in various reports that prisoners of conscience in Al Saud prisons have been subjected to various methods of torture that sometimes do not differentiate between the detainee’s age or gender.

Human rights organizations have reported that women prisoners of conscience and human rights activists in detention are subjected to degrading treatment and sexual harassment.

Estimates differ on the number of prisoners of conscience in the prisons of the Saudi authorities in light of the large blackout, and in his latest statistic, the account of “prisoners of conscience” indicated that there are 2,613 political prisoners from all segments and groups distributed among several prisons.

Activists suggest that the number only pertain to detainees since September 2017, as the number of arrests increased after Muhammad bin Salman took over the throne in June 2017.

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