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Saudi Arabia Defends Its Human Rights Record
GENEVA, April 6 (AFP) - Non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia enjoy full freedom to engage in their religious observances in private, and any form of torture in the kingdom is prohibited, a Saudi Arabian official said Thursday.
"No non-Muslims have ever been subjected to prosecution or punishment because of their religious faith and it is a punishable offence to subject them to any interference or harassment," Undersecretary for Political Affairs Prince Torki Mohammed Saud Al-Kabeer told the U.N. Human Rights Commission here.
"Non-Muslims enjoy full freedom to engage in their religious observances in private," he said.
He also highlighted that regulations in force in Saudi Arabia to protect human rights prohibited any form of torture.
Saudi Arabia last week rejected allegations by Amnesty International which accused it of arbitrary arrests, torture and executions, persecuting political opponents and religious minorities and cruel judicial punishments, including amputations.
Amnesty was not talking about non-Muslims and non-nationals, but Muslims and citizens in the first place.
Al-Kabeer told the commission Riyadh placed great importance on the principle of tolerance.
He said an independent non-governmental national body was being established to help publicize and protect human rights, and a committee made up of various governmental bodies had been set up to investigate allegations of torture.
He called on Iraq to cooperate with international bodies in establishing the whereabouts of prisoners, detainees and missing persons from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries in Iraq since the Gulf war.
"This issue, in all its aspects, still constitutes a human tragedy and the time has come for the Iraqi government to find a solution to this tragedy," Al-Kabeer told the 53-member body.
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