MAKKAH: A prisoner at a Makkah reformatory allegedly lost his eyesight after he was whipped before being medically examined, his younger brother told Arab News on Friday.
"My eldest brother was suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. He had suffered from a stroke and was whipped while sitting on his wheelchair. While being whipped, he became blind," Ali Muhammad alleged.
Muhammad said his brother was sentenced about eight months ago on charges of fraud and ordered to serve a six-month prison sentence, in addition to 150 lashes, to be applied on three separate occasions.
"Before he started his jail term, my brother was suffering from diabetes, hypertension and heart problems. He prepared an official medical report about his health condition and sent it to the Makkah Governorate in the hope the authorities would waive his punishment," Muhammad said.
He said the governorate asked the prisons department to refer the prisoner to a hospital in Makkah to help decide if his sentence should be waived.
"The prisons department did not send my brother to any hospital. While in prison he had a stroke which paralyzed him from the left side," he added.
"When he was about to complete his jail term, he was whipped before being seen by the prison doctor. Before the whipping was completed, he cried that he could not see. He had lost his eyesight".
Muhammad said his mother complained to the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) in Makkah, asking it to investigate the incident.
The society asked one of its members, Islamic Shariah professor Muhammad Al-Suhali, to look into the case.
Al-Suhali said he met with the director of Makkah prisons, Col. Muhammad bin Shahlool, who promised to cooperate fully with the NSHR.
"It was clear to me from the testimonies of other inmates that the prisoner was whipped while on his wheelchair and that the beating was focused on his neck, the only visible part of his body," Al-Suhali said.
Al-Suhali quoted eyewitnesses as saying that they saw blood spots on the prisoner's forehead. "This is what actually caused his blindness," he said.
He confirmed that before he was sent to the penitentiary, the prisoner was suffering from underlying health conditions.
He also alleged a civilian who oversaw the flogging told him that the flogger, a prison employee, initially refused to whip the prisoner because of his health but was forced by the prison authority to do so.
Al-Suhali said this civilian, the prison's medical doctor and a number of inmates all testified that they saw bloodstains on the prisoner's forehead and heard him crying that he could not see.
He said the next day the prisoner complained he had not received any real care when he was sent to Al-Zahir hospital.
He added the prisoner had told him that he had asked for an MRI, but the hospital said its equipment was in use and referred him to Hira hospital, which then refused to receive him.
Al-Suhali said he sat with the prisoner. "He is paralyzed, blinded and neglected. He is also suffering from poverty as he cannot support his mother and underage brothers," he said.
He added that the victim's debts had reached more than SR350,000 and that the landlord kicked his mother, a cancer patient, and his brothers out of their rented apartment.
The NSHR member said he met with a committee composed of the prison doctor, the director of the prison's health center, the health supervisor and the supervisor of the prison ward and ascertained that the whipping had been carried out before the prisoner had been examined by a doctor.
He alleged that the doctor had denied signing a report by the prison's management claiming the victim was medically examined before being whipped.
He said the NSHR's branch office had filed a complete report about the investigations with the society's main office in Riyadh. The main office had sent follow-up reports of the case to the Makkah Governorate, the Prosecution and Investigation Commission (PIC) and the committee for the care of prisoners.
He said the PIC had sent one of its staff members to meet with the prisoner before a decision was made to set up a Shariah committee to look into the case and decide whether he was entitled to be released. "Two weeks have passed but the committee has not been formed," he added.
Al-Suhali said the poor condition of the prisoner was enough reason to sign off on his release. He said the society would approach philanthropists and welfare societies to pay the prisoner's debts and help him financially.
He noted that the prisoner's health condition had worsened and that he had lost control of his bladder.
