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Briton beaten and drugged by Saudi police sues for £2m
Abul Taher19.10.09
A British man who was tortured in a Saudi jail is fighting to win £2million in compensation at the European Court of Human Rights.
Ron Jones, 56, a former tax accountant, was detained by Saudi police in March 2001 for more than two months as a suspect in a bomb explosion.
He was caned repeatedly, suspended by the arms and given mind-altering drugs and has been unable to work since the attack.
His wife Sandra says her husband still cannot discuss his ordeal and is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. "My husband is still too traumatised to talk about the whole thing. He can't talk about it at all. It is just too much for him," she said.
Mr Jones was working in the capital Riyadh when a bomb exploded outside a bookshop. He was slightly injured and taken to hospital. The next day, Saudi secret police took him away and detained him unlawfully for 67 days.
Mr Jones says he was beaten, drugged and forced into making a confession, and was told he faced the death penalty by beheading. He was later released without charge. Since his return to the UK, Mr Jones has fought a battle for compensation from the Saudis in UK courts. In 2006, the House of Lords rejected his case, saying that the Saudi government and its agents had immunity from prosecution in UK courts under the State Immunity Act.
The law lords reached their verdict after a direct intervention by Tony Blair's government. Lord Falconer, then Lord Chancellor, argued in favour of the Saudis, urging the judges to uphold the State Immunity Act.
Human rights groups and some MPs condemned the decision, accusing Mr Blair of letting the Saudis get away with torture because of oil and arms deals between the two countries.
Mr Jones, originally from Scotland, lives with his wife and 20-year-old son Grant - a police officer - in their semi-detached house in Crawley.
Three other Britons were arrested and tortured in Saudi Arabia. Lawyers acting for them argue that the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees every citizen the right to a fair trial. Their legal teams are demanding that state immunity laws must not be used to deny anyone a hearing.
Reader views (9)
He should sue the Foreign Office for doing - as usual - Sweet FA to get him out: look how they bent over backwards to get the pregnant girl back to the UK off a drug-dealing charge, and she wasn't even British! As a British Subject he has paid his taxes to receive help from his Government when in trouble abroad, but they didn't do thing - just as they don't negotiate with hostage-takers and leave the hapless hostages to be killed rather than even pass comment on a deadline.
Basically, they don't want to get rid of the State Immunity Act because then you'd get to hear about all the things the British do to help assist with rendition.
- Roz, France
For a country which does not even allow movie theatres and whose "universities" graduate more religious clerics than doctors or engineers, does Mr Jones and his legal team really think it's going to be at all concerned about a ruling from the ECHR? Get real. It's a totalitarian state run by a bunch of in bred, Islamist Bedouins with oil money...not a responsible member of the international community, for goodness sake!
- Amazed, Hobart, Australia
Is this guy expecting to receive a payout from MY tax's, I hope not.
He certainly will not get anything from the Saudis.
- James, City of London
I lived in Dhahran and along with many British and Americans made Sadiqui (Arabic for friend, the local alcoholic drink. If you were discrete it was generally ignored. The idea that there was a violent rivalry between people making alcohol is utterly ludicrous. There was never enough drink to go around and people generally helped each other to get it.
- Fred, Horsham
And what influence does the European Court have over the Middle Eastern state of Saudi Arabia? None. It does have influence over the UK though (read, 'strangle-hold'). So what is the underlaying intent of this action?
I don't doubt that the guy went through a horrendous experience. But effectively expecting a foreign power to behave as the British do? Naïve!
Hint to anyone who works outside of Britain. You are going to be treated the same as everyone else, wherever you are staying. Quite often that means 'not very well'.
- Rogan, Irving
".... Lawyers acting for them argue that the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees every citizen the right to a fair trial. Their legal teams are demanding that state immunity laws must not be used to deny anyone a hearing."
When did Saudi Arabia become a member of the EU, or a signatory to the ECHR?
If the EUropean Court agrees to hear this case, with some expectation of being able to force the Saudis to comply with any order, they are clearly mad and suffering from delusions of grandeur!
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
Hopefully the Saudis won't be able to threaten European states with a withdrawal of intelligence sharing as they did with the BAe bribery investigation if this case continues. With "friends" like the Saudis, who needs enemies? Fiat iustitia, ruat coelum.
- Jonanthan Charles, Gloucestershire
The British government's treatment of Ron Jones and the other British detainees has been appalling. Everyone knew they were arrested on trumpet up charges and were being tortured. The government simply washed their hands of the whole affair. Oil is more important than the well being of British Citizens.
- Mick, London, England
Saudi Arabia, infringing human rights? The same Saudi Arabia that voted in favour of the UN enquiry into War crimes by Israel and HAMAS? This bastion of Islamic tolerance and equality surely can't be guilty of detention and torture? No doubt we will have to send Geoffrey Howe to smooth over this row once again.
- Peter, Harrow, UK
