Ben Ali a quitté le palais du roi Faysal à Djeddah
FIGARO – BLOG _ GEORGES MALBRUNOT: L’ex raïs tunisien a quitté le Palais de l’ex roi Faysal à Djeddah, où il avait été hébergé à son arrivée en Arabie saoudite, le 15 janvier dernier. «Mais depuis personne ne sait où il est », nous affirme un habitant de la cité portuaire saoudienne sur la Mer rouge. «Il y a beaucoup de rumeurs, mais c’est un sujet qui est tabou ici à Djeddah», ajoute-t-il. Continuez à lire et écrire un commentaire >>> Georges Malbrunot | Lundi 28 Février 2011

Canadian Facing Beheading Pleads with Harper
GLOBE AND MAIL: MONTREAL — A Canadian man facing beheading in Saudi Arabia wrote to Prime Minister Stephen Harper detailing that he was tortured into confessing to a murder he says he did not commit.

In the one-page letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press, Mohamed Kohail implores Harper to use “every way possible to get me out of this situation.”

The letter, handed over to Canadian MP Deepak Obhrai when the latter visited him in a Jidda prison last December, discusses his deteriorating health and his two-year plight in jail.

“Mr. Harper, I have been in jail for two years now,” Mr. Kohail wrote. “I am imprisoned with hundreds (of) high-profile criminals in Saudi Arabia for a crime that I did not commit.”

Mr. Kohail, 24, and a Jordanian friend were convicted of murder after Munzer Al-Hiraki was killed in a January 2007 after-school brawl in Jidda which apparently started when Mr. Kohail's younger brother, Sultan, was accused of insulting a girl.

The brothers have repeatedly said they were acting in self-defence and were not involved in inflicting the fatal wounds during the fight, which involved dozens of teen boys

Mohamed Kohail was convicted of murder last year and ordered beheaded while Sultan, 18, was initially sentenced as an accessory to a year in jail and 200 lashes. The victim's family then appealed, resulting in a probable new trial for Sultan.

Both brothers and their friend have claimed their innocence and say the Saudi judicial system has not afforded them a fair trial.

“I want to come back to Canada to finish my degree — me and the rest of the family — and continue my life as a good citizen.” a desperate Mr. Kohail writes.

“I've lost my hair, two years of my life and see death coming to me closer every day,” he adds.

Mr. Kohail said he was only informed that Mr. Hiraki had died after he had signed the confession. That same confession was then used against him in the court proceedings.

“I was tortured to sign a confession,” Mr. Kohail said. >>> Sidhartha Banerjee | Tuesday, May 19, 2009