DUBAI: Saudi Arabia dismissed on Friday as “baseless” reports that detainedactivists, including women, faced sexual harassment and torture duringinterrogation.
“These recent reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch arebaseless,” the kingdom said in a statement.
The government said that it “strongly denies” the accusations that are“simply wrong”.
The activists, held since May in Dhahban prison on the western Red Seacoast, have faced repeated electrocution and flogging, leaving some of themunable to stand or walk, Amnesty International said on Tuesday, citingthree separate testimonies.
At least one activist was made to hang from a ceiling, Amnesty added.
In addition to the torture, at least three women activists also endured“forcible kissing and hugging”, Human Rights Watch said in a separatestatement also on Tuesday.
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The reports came as Saudi Arabia faces intense global criticism over thekilling of insider-turned-critic Jamal Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulateon October 2, which tipped the kingdom into one of its worst crises.
More than a dozen activists were arrested in May — just before the historiclifting of a decades-long ban on women drivers the following month.
Many of them were accused of undermining security and aiding enemies of thestate. Some were subsequently released. – APP/AFP
