Family members of two Indians languishing in jails in Saudi Arabia have approached External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for help. Mohammed Irfan has been languishing in a Saudi Arabia jail for over 15 years now since his family is unable to pay the punishment sum of over `1 crore to secure his release, while Mohammad Mansoor Hussain is facing 300 lashes and one year jail term. Both are facing punishment on charges of theft.
The Indian Embassy in Riyadh has filed a mercy petition with Saudi Government on behalf of Hussain seeking his release. The petition was filed after Hussian’s wife Minhaaj Sayed approached Swaraj seeking help. She tweeted that Malakpet-based Hussain’s family is very poor and cannot afford a lawyer to contest his case. “Only one week left for his appeal plz (please) do the needful for my husband,” Minhaaj tweeted. While informing her about the appeal filed by the Indian side, Embassy officials also asked her to give authorities time to examine the mercy petition. Swaraj has asked diplomats in Riyadh to keep her posted about the developments in the matter.
Hussain was arrested over charges of stealing money of his employer when he went to lodge a complaint of robbery. Hussain claimed that he was robbed of 1,06,000 Riyals that he belonged to the company he was working for when he went to bank to deposit it. However, Riyadh police did not find any robbery in a CCTV footage of the bank and he was convicted of theft. later, Husssian’s family produced another CTTV footage of a petrol bunk where robbery took place but alleged that this video was not produced in the court by police as evidence.
In the second case, Mohammed Irfan was arrested for allegedly committing theft of medicines from a local government warehouse in Jeddah in January 2000. He has been in jail since then, according to a December 21, 2016 correspondence between the Ministry of External Affairs and National Commission for Minorities (NCM) member Praveen Davar.
Irfan was arrested for allegedly violating two Saudi rights — public and private. While Irfan, who hails from Bihar’s Piplawan village, has served imprisonment of 18 months under public right, he continues to be in prison for not fulfilling private right, under which he is required to pay a penalty amount of around `1.29 crore (7,11,562 Saudi Riyals).
According to a public court in Jeddah, Irfan must pay the amount to the Saudi Health Ministry for allegedly stealing medicines from the warehouse of its medical supply department, where he used to work as an air-conditioner technician. Given the prevalent rules/laws of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, no one can exempt/waive or commute punishment awarded under private right except the affected party, the correspondence from the office of Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar said.
The matter was taken up several times with the Saudi authorities concerned in the past, but no positive reply has been received till now in this regard.
“We sold our land and house to see my brother is released. A person who promised us help, took money but did not help us. We now urge (Sushma) Swaraj ji to help my brother return. My parents have turned old now, waiting to see their son. We earnestly request the Minister to help us,” Irfan’s brother Istekhar said. He also alleged that his brother was framed by a Mumbai-based firm which had hired him in 1996 to work in the Gulf country. Irfan wanted to return home in the year he was arrested, but his employer was against it, he claimed. He charged the employer with forcibly making Irfan work two years beyond the agreement and also paying less than what was assured.