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THE fifth estate: A State of Denial
Prison in Saudi Arabia> Printer Version

Broadcast December 11th, 2002

RE-CREATING THE PRISON CELL

Al Hayer prison, where Bill Sampson is being held .

A Padded Room
For the past two years, Canadian William Sampson has been locked in a padded room about 6 metres long. His food appears through a hatch in the door, a concrete slab serves as a bed and fluorescent lights beat down on him 24 hours a day. The cell guarantees him unrelenting isolation and the looming possibility of a public beheading. This is life inside the Al Hayer prison. (read more about Saudi justice)

When the fifth estate decided to recreate Sampson’s time in Al Hayer, his jail cell became integral to the story. Descriptions of the cell were provided by Ron Jones (read more about Ron Jones), who was held in Al Hayer for 67 days and is interviewed in “State of Denial.” Sampson is not allowed a pen or paper, and there is no written record of his time in prison. In fact, no one outside the prison even knows what happened to Sampson during his first year there, and the only photographic evidence that has been released was his taped confession.

Reconstructing the inside
of a Saudi jail.

Re-creating the Cell
So with Jones’s description and his schematic diagram as starting points, CBC crews constructed a three-walled space that approximated the look and feel of a cell deep in the Saudi desert. Two large lamps substituted for the harsh glare of fluorescent lighting. Small details unique to the cell, such as a mirror and a security camera, were included, although the odd touch of an unused television was not. Sampson’s cell contains no personal belongings and he is not allowed any reading material. (see more pictures of the cell)

To complete the picture, an actor was used to re-enact the claustrophobic routine of a person in isolation. Dressed in a robe and sandals, the actor was shot pacing around the cell (Sampson himself walks about 10 km a day), sleeping and disrobing. These scenes were then incorporated into the final documentary, giving viewers a rare glimpse of life inside a Saudi jail.

RON JONES ACCOUNT

The Bomb in Riyadh
Ron Jones, like many other Westerners working in Saudi Arabia, enjoyed a sumptuous lifestyle where he worked hard but was paid well. A tax accountant working for a big Saudi company, he obeyed the rules, he didn't drink, and lived quietly.

It had came to an abrupt end on March 15, 2000 as he stood outside a bookstore in downtown Riyadh, "Something happened. I don't know what it was...and I was thrown. I don't remember anything after that until I woke up in an ambulance and I had been scorched down the left side of my body." Somebody had set off a car bomb - one of many similar attacks on Westerners living in Saudi Arabia.

The wall outside the compound where Ron Jones was held.

The police came to the hospital to ask him some questions but Ron Jones knew nothing about bombs and politics. He had only been in the country for about six months. Then the police offered to drive him home. "I noticed that we were going in the opposite directions to where I lived...And we came to this big wall." They drove past armed guards and into a large compound. As the police led him to a bare cell (see Ron's recollection of the cell) he knew something was very wrong.

Inside the Saudi Prison
"They handcuffed me and then they made me sit on the floor and they shackled my feet...I said, Why? And he (the guard) said just lift up your feet and he just swung this cane onto the soles of my feet...And he did it again and the pain was absolutely excruciating. He said, 'Now you will tell me the truth'."

Ron was taken to the Mabaheth Interrogation Centre in Riyadh. Once you enter the gates you're presumed guilty.

"And the more I screamed the more they'd hit. They would make me hold my hands out, lift my own feet up, while they beat them with canes about four feet long. They would make me kneel in a corner with the soles of my feet facing outwards and beat them with pick axe handles. They would leave me in rooms blindfolded and shackled. They would spin me around in a chair while I was blindfolded and whack me round the head. They threatened they would kill me."

This method of torture is known as Falanga. The victim is beaten on the soles of his feet with blunt instruments so there are no long term physical signs of torture.

A Confession Factory
In his cell Ron would hear screams of others being tortured, "It was awful because you knew what they were going through. And you knew it was your turn next."

Ron remembers one man who subjected him to a severe beating. "He wasn't caring where he hit me. It was wherever the blow landed. And then he started to sing. But he was singing and the blows got fiercer and it actually knocked my blindfold off slightly and I could see him out of the corner of my eye and he was smiling." (see a sketch of Ron's torturer)

"And I remember saying, I'll tell you anything you want, just don't hit me again." He signed a confession.

The Second Team of Interrogators
After Ron Jones had been in prison for six weeks, a second team of interrogators showed up. They believed him when he said he was innocent and they believed his stories of beatings and abuse. They gave him a statement to sign which would eventually secure his release.

"The Statement was that I had to apologize to the Saudi government, the Saudi King and the Saudi people for lying and confessing to a bombing that I hadn't committed. And the only reason that I had confessed to those bombings was that I couldn't stand being in solitary confinement."

Three weeks later, after his injuries had healed, the authorities let him go.

Eventually he returned home, his pay had stopped and there was no apology given.

Prince Saud al Faisal insists that Westerners are not being tortured in Saudi jails.

Back in England
Once he returned to England he told his story of abuse. And he traveled to the Parker Institute in Copenhagen, a leading centre for the diagnosis of torture. There doctors examined his feet with ultrasound technology to see if there was an lasting damage under the skin. Their tests revealed that he had been tortured on both his feet and hands, severely, and for a long time.

The diagnosis was confirmed by British pathologists.

But Saudi's Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al Faisal remains adament that the stories of torture are false. "I don't care what the so-called experts say. I know what is happening in my government, and I know what instructions all officers in the government have about torture and things like that."

OTHER ACCOUNTS

Peter Goldsmith and his wife spent six weeks
in a Saudi jail.

Peter Goldsmith and his wife Annie were arrested outside their villa.

"Two cars drove up, six or seven big guys got out, they grabbed me. two or three of them went into my villa because the gate was open and a few minutes later, they dragged my wife out."

"I wasn't sure whether they would release me at that point because I knew they'd found some alcohol in my house."

Kelvin Hawkins spent a year in a Saudi jail.

Kelvin Hawkins was arrested after a car bomb went off outside his bar.

"I was asked to look at photographs to see if I could identify anybody who'd been hanging around the bars or who was suspicious. I went to do that and that was the end of my freedom. There was no formal arrest, there was no reading of rights. You were just thrown in a cell."

"They accused me of making the bomb, planting the bomb and setting the bomb off. They claimed I had all the chemicals necessary to make the bomb in my kitchen."

"They threatened other things, violence, attacks on my wife."

Gary O'Nions is still in jail.

Gary O'Nions is serving eight years in prison. His wife, Mary recalls his arrest.

"They just came in droves. It looked like a band of Osama Bin Laden. They knocked his teeth loose, they fractured his ribs. He was actually terrified they were going to kill him."

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the fifth estate : A State of Denial

The Bill Sampson Story - Inside a Saudi Prison - Justice in Saudi Arabia
Resources - Update

Broadcast December 11, 2002 on CBC News: the fifth estate
UPDATED in October 2004