On Death Row

ON a typical Friday before noon prayers in Jeddah, police secure a parking lot in preparation for a uniquely Saudi spectacle—public executions. Spectators and officials gather—officials under the shade of a canopy—as police vans with screaming sirens convey the prisoners to the improvised killing field where a low platform has been erected. With their hands tied behind their backs, the blindfolded prisoners are guided up the stairs. "This is not a sight for the fainthearted," comments an Indian citizen who in July witnessed Saudi Arabia's implacable justice in action. "The condemned are unsteady—the rumour is, they drug them."

Death is the penalty for murder, rape and drugs in Saudi Arabia. Kneeling on the platform, ankles tied, the accused bow their heads as an official reads the court's verdict in Arabic. Then, the executioner—his silken robes shimmering in the sun—gently positions the neck of the first victim before slicing off the head with one swipe of his long sword. On this occasion five foreigners (four Pakistanis and one Nigerian) are decapitated within a few minutes, leaving the robes of the executioner spattered with blood. "The silence at the end was broken by loud clapping from the official benches followed by less enthusiastic applause from the public," says the witness.

Ten Indians were thus executed in 1995, two in 1996 and six met the same end between January and August this year. Half of these were for drug offences. But when Yvonne Gilford, an Australian nurse, was murdered in Dhahran in '96, Britain and Australia worked hard to obtain clemency for one of the accused, Deborah Parry, a British nurse who faced a possible public beheading. There was an uproar in Britain, and in the end her life was saved. The victim's brother received $1.2 million as compensation or "blood money" and waived his right to demand her execution. Lucille McLauchlan was found guilty as an accessory to the murder. Latest unconfirmed reports say the sentences of both the accused have been heavily reduced.

Indians tried for murder by Saudi courts rarely receive such publicity or clemency, and Saudis are not known for brooking arguments once a decision is made. "Basically the Saudis are never wrong," says a source who deals in legal and consular matters concerning Indians in the Gulf.Saudi law claims to be nondiscriminatory, but Westerners do appear not to get caught up in the system in the same way that Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos, Egyptians, Bangladeshis and Palestinians do. "Americans in particular, have a teflon coating on them," comments human rights activist Ravi Nair, who believes that the explanation for the preferential treatment lies in the very powerful consular services provided by the US and other embassies to its nationals. Americans in trouble are spirited away before the case can be brought to the courts in apparent complicity with the Saudis. One well-placed source says America has been pressing to have its citizens in Saudi Arabia tried under US law. "This is a bone of contention between them," says the source.

For Indians convicted of identical offences, the scales of Saudi justice are not so forgiving. In a recent case, Manmohan Gauba, an Indian national who had been working as a manager with a Swedish firm, ABB Contracting Company Ltd., was arrested and charged with bribing Saudi officials to approve business ventures. But it's believed that a Swede who was also involved, managed to get out of the country before he could be arrested. An insulin dependent diabetic, Gauba was arrested in March and sentenced to a year in jail with three months remission. According to one member of his family, "he was made a scapegoat for the company and neither the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) nor the prime minister has managed to help us."

THE Indian mission in Jeddah has told New Delhi that the Saudis sometimes don't inform them when an Indian national is to be executed, thus not giving them any time for pre-emptive lobbying. And the bodies of those executed are never returned to the families. "We are not happy about it," says former MEA spokesman Talmiz Ahmad. "We have raised the issue of submission of information about Indians arrested many times with the Saudis, but they plead inadequate manpower." India has gently suggested that using computers might improve the information flow.

Illegal workers recently returning from the Gulf say that they are treated extremely shabbily by the Saudi police. "They think India is just a working class society," claims another MEA source. Workers are even harassed at the airport for bringing curry powders unfamiliar to the Saudis.

Yet Indians continue to go en masse to Saudi Arabia because it is lucrative and increases cash flows into India. Although bilateral trade is $2.5 billion, strongly in Saudi Arabia's favour, the cash flow to India is estimated at $3 billion annually, largely remittances from Indian workers there. Kozhikode and Mallapuram in Kerala, for example, are remittance-based economies. Kozhikode airport is a major gateway for gold from the Gulf region, whereas parts of Mallapuram are known as mini-Gulf. Calicut plans to start its own football club with Gulf funds of Rs 1.25 crore.

Nair believes the Indian government is reluctant to take up the rights of Indian citizens with the Saudis for fear of jeopardising the lucrative remittance flows. "The labour market is a buyers market in Saudi Arabia, and if India starts making it difficult, the Saudis might replace them with workers from elsewhere," he says. Saudi Arabia possesses one quarter of the world's proven oil reserves and is the largest exporter of oil. India imports $2 billion worth every year, yet India appears to play the role of a dependent customer rather than a valued one.

바카라 웹사이트A former Indian diplomat to Saudi Arabia says that with the large number of Indian workers spread over various work sites in the country, it is hard to give legal help to everybody. But Nair insists: "India has one of the worst records in terms of giving consular and legal help to its own nationals abroad. And the condition of Indians arrested for overstaying in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states has not evoked any parliamentary or public debate in India."

The Saudi justice system is a closed one whereby those charged with an offence can only be helped before the matter reaches the courts. After that "the matter is taken over by the religious laws," says a senior source. Outside the courts, the final authority rests with the king, and Indian bureaucrats say they are often kept in the dark about the local levels of authority. "You don't know whether the person you are dealing with is important or not, or where the instructions are coming from."

바카라 웹사이트A new Saudi crackdown on foreign labourers who overstay their visas means more trouble for Indians living there. Overstaying visas is the most common offence recorded among the 1.5 million Indian workers most of whom are from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Until recently, there were 40,000 illegal Indian immigrants in바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트 detention centres waiting to be deported.

In April, a delegation of senior Indian officials went to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries with the express purpose of inspecting the missions to allocate more funds and staff to deal with the legal problems of workers in the Gulf. All the action appears to be on the Indian side and repeated invitations to put their side of the story were shunned by Saudi embassy of ficials in New Delhi. Clearly, Saudi Arabia does not feel the need to defend its policies where Indians are concerned.