By Dan Littauer Editor, 1.4.11
According to
The
SUN, Stephen Comiskey, a 36-year-old nurse was arrested and
beaten in Saudi Arabia by the Mutaween (religious police) after
they sent him fake text messages masquerading as a friend and
leading him into a trap. His passport was taken away from him
and he was imprisoned for six months.
Stephen told The
SUN that he was forced to sign a confession in Arabic which he
did not understand and was kept in jail without knowing what
would be his fate, fearing the worse – capital punishment.
Mr Comiskey, who
worked at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital in Riyadh, was
finally allowed to fly home this week after diplomatic
negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. The
case has been under media blackout until today.
The British
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) suggested this may have
been a reprisal for the
arrest and exposure of Saudi Prince saud
Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud who for murdering his male
lover/servant last year. The Saudi authorities allegedly were
angered when British judges declined their demands to keep the
Prince’s sexuality secret.
This case was handled in a highly unusual
manner: most Western expats trapped by the Mutaween are usually
deported, so it seems very likely it was a kind of "diplomatic"
message or retaliation as the FCO claims.
Homosexuality is
illegal in Saudi Arabia and those found guilty may be subject to
the death penalty, imprisonment and flogging under Shari’a law.
The punishment for engaging in homosexual acts in Saudi Arabia
is the death penalty for married persons, while unmarried
persons would be subject to a minimum of 100 lashes plus and
imprisonment. Under Shari’a law for there to be a conviction
there must be four trustworthy male witnesses to the act, or the
accused to confess four times, in order to obtain a conviction,
making execution extremely rare. Saudi law is not strictly
codified and its implementation, in either a lenient or severe
manner, depends mostly on religious Sunni judges and scholars,
as well as royal decrees (and thus subject to extreme
variability). Conviction and severity of punishments depends on
the social class, religion and citizenship of the accused,
whereby non-western migrant workers receive usually harsher
treatment than upper class Saudi citizens.
Much
more common
is harassment by the hands of the religious police, the mutaween
of the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the
Prevention of Vice. If the mutaween learn that a person is
homosexual or engaging in homosexual activity they are likely to
be subject to lifelong harassment (including sexual) and
blackmail. This often leaves the person extremely vulnerable
and subject to a life of fear, misery and in some cases leads to
suicide. The number of people falling victim to the mutaween is
thought to be very significant but information, understandably,
is very difficult to gather
Sami Al Ali, an activist from the region,
commented that “unfortunately such cases are quite common in the
Gulf States and in particular, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
He added that “many men and women, and in particular gay men,
are blackmailed for sex and money”, making their life very
difficult if not intolerable. GME notes that in some cases it is
the agents of the mutaween themselves blackmailing gay men or
just attempting to entrap them. This happens across the Arab
world, where the Secret Police/CID/Religious Police infiltrate
chat rooms and gay dating sites. Such incidents highlight the
vulnerability of any Arab citizen, and in particular LGBT ones,
to such scams as they are indirectly supported by draconian anti
gay legislation.
Saudi Arabia is
a deeply gender segregated country which therefore exacerbates
sexual tensions that have been, for centuries, channelled
discretely into same sex acts. Such acts are common place but
publicly disavowed and frowned upon. Many men, for example, who
engage in such acts are not necessarily primarily “gay” in their
object choice, nor are they likely to ever identify as such.
Publicly being identified as a homosexual is seen as deeply
offensive, nicknamed Makhaneeth or Luti a faggot, effeminate,
sinner and even scum.
GME calls upon
the Saudi authorities to seriously consider decriminalising
homosexuality which would help solve this pressing problem as
well end the persecution of all sexual minorities
