Amnesty magazine March/April
Saudi Arabia: Secret state of suffering
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=U ... gle+Search
'I still haven't heard anything about my case... I'm waiting for the judge to summon me. Mum, I really want to go home... I feel so helpless.'
'I'm always scared, especially on Fridays because that's the day when they execute those who are on death row.'
These are extracts from letters sent by Sarah Dematera from prison in Saudi Arabia to her family in 1993 and late 1997. Sarah was 19 years old when she arrived in Saudi Arabia in November 1992 from her native Philippines to begin a job as a domestic worker. Four days later she was arrested for the murder of her female employer, a crime she denies committing. She has been in al-Dammam prison ever since. Five years after her arrest AI and thousands of people around the world learned that she had been sentenced to death, but it appeared that Sarah was still unaware of her sentence.
'I... was in discussion with the shopkeeper... when a male dressed in traditional Saudi costume literally grab-bed my shoulder and dragged me out onto the street. Once on the street, two or three others ... grabbed me, twisted my arms behind my back and roughly manhandled me towards an American Chevrolet. One can imagine the utter shock at this physical abuse and I could only manage to repeat...'what is the problem?' At no point did I receive any response from these people, and the next thing I knew they had attached leg shackles round my ankles. These secured my arms and were brought to my front whereupon my wrists were handcuffed. Now that I was completely shackled these nameless thugs started punching me around the head, chest and stomach...'