In dealing with women, Saudi security services above the law
The Saudi law stipulates that any person who engages in acts of violence against women or abuse her physically or psychologically -regardless of his relationship with her – shall be punished with a fine of up to 50 thousand and imprisonment for up to one year.
The Public Prosecution affirmed its commitment to this decision, according to which it prohibited every form of violence against women, physical, psychological, or sexual abuse or threat by any person on the grounds of their family relationship, support, sponsorship, guardianship, or subsistence relationship.
Although the decision was clear that the people who commit these prohibited practices against women are all criminals before the law, regardless of their authority or relationship with the victimized woman; the Saudi security services severely violated this decision by committing different forms of violence against detained women, who are protected by a large number of international laws and treaties, and must receive special treatment for their detention and trial are not nullified.
Saudi female detainees, especially prisoners of conscience, are subjected to severe violence inside prisons, which Mohamed bin Salman denounced at the beginning of his tenure, and which the Saudi media supporter of women! Which women? Those screaming in prisons? Those who are being burned, beaten, lashed and insulted by the jailers under the direct supervision of the Saudi royal court.”
Violence inside prisons is not different from violence outside, but it may be heavier for the female detainees who become helpless. They get whipped like Aida Al-Ghamdi, and another being burned with cigarettes, like LouJain Al-Hathloul, who was threatened with rape and chopping like Khashoggi, and others who lose consciousness from the severity of the beatings like Nouf Abdel Aziz.
Outside prisons there is a greater tragedy for the families of these detainees who are oppressed by the authorities, and they do not know anything about their detained daughters and they are not allowed to communicate with them, visit them or check on them.
As to violating the Sharia, which the regime claims is the source of legislation and that the authorities are responsible for its implementation; Article 36 and Article 43 of the Saudi Law of Criminal Procedure, which is supposed to be in place within the judicial bodies and where the security services abide by it, provide that the government should “listen to a woman’s statements, interrogate, and investigate with her in the presence of one of her men family members, and if that is not possible, seclusion should be avoided.” Article 43 states, “A criminal investigation man may – in cases in which the law for the arrest of the accused is permitted – that he gets searched in his body, clothes, and belongings. If the accused is a woman, the search must be carried out by a woman assigned by the criminal investigation officer.
The aim of these articles, as stated by the officials, is to give a woman’s body special immunity and protect her from any act that degrades her dignity, and to ward off psychological and physical harm that she may be exposed to if she becomes accused.
By looking at these articles, we find that security personnel are far from implementing this system, but rather they are the first to violate it in a way that has made prisons a hotbed of legal violations and grave human rights violations that are not respected by law or Sharia.
Detainees undergo investigation sessions that last for hours without any of their families being present with them, and in addition to the illegality of these sessions due to the absence of a lawyer with the accused, it is in itself another violation as it is punctuated by various forms of physical torture that reach sexual harassment and threats of rape, as well as insults used by the interrogators and officers during interrogations and in prisons.
What kind of immunity do Saudi security officers enjoy in order to become above the law and sharia? Do officers have celestial immunity that allows them to play double standards?
Does the law discriminate between a civilian and an officer? Is the responsibility for implementing Sharia law for citizens alone?
How could the system claim that the woman will be free from all restrictions of the past, while it is the first to deny her freedom and keep her in prisons without any rights or dignity?
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