Saudi Arabia: Another prisoner dies due to lack of medical care

Aboud Bahaneef, 33, was serving a three year sentence when he contracted a pulmonary infection for which he received no diagnosis. And it was only after his poor health had reached a life-threatening stage that he was transferred to the local hospital, where he suffered continuous bouts of fainting. Even despite his critical paralysis, he was cuffed to his bed and left to his own devices without any further medical care.

He had served two and half years of his three year sentence.

Poor conditions of detention

The issue of insufficient medical care for prisoners is commonplace in Saudi prisons. In most of the Saudi penitentiaries, maintained under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, ailing prisoners are allowed a single medical visit per week, the same day each week, and are only evacuated to hospital when their health becomes critical. According to sources, tuberculosis is an serious problem inside Saudi prisons, and the authorities have failed to take the necessary preventative measures.

Alkarama requests that the Saudi authorities investigate into the death of Aboud Bahaneef as well as other recent deaths in al-Hayr prison, where lack of medical care and ill-treatment have become a routine.

Alkarama reminds the Saudi authorities of their obligations to assure the physical and mental well-being of their detainees and in cases of illness, that they receive the same quality of medical treatment as those who are not detained or imprisoned, as stipulated in the principles adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1982 (Resolution 37/194).