From CDHR
August 2, 2007
Saudi System of Gross Injustice
By Ali Alyami
The inhumane saga of Mansour Al-Timani, his wife Fatima and their one and three year old children continue in the hands of Saudi authorities. On July 25, 2005, Fatima and Mansour were forcibly divorced after the Saudi judicial system, acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner, nullified their marriage. Fatima’s brothers pushed for the nullification because in their eyes her husband lacked the proper tribal background. When Fatima refused to go back to her brothers’ home after the nullification, she and her one year old son were sent to prison. Mansour takes care of their three year old daughter, but never seems to escape harassment at the hands of ruthless Saudi authorities. He was recently stopped by Saudi police, interrogated all night with his traumatized three years old daughter by his side, and was forced to sign a gag order prohibiting him from speaking to the press about the barbaric and gross injustice committed against him and his family. Fatima has been removed from her prison cell and placed in a substandard unwanted women’s shelter.
The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia calls on the White House, the State Department, Congress, NGOs and the media to intervene on behalf of the Al-Timani family and condemn an arbitrary and whimsical judicial system that penalizes and tortures people who fall in love, get married, have children, and live in accordance with decent social, cultural and religious norms. It’s ironic that the government of the United States is in the process of selling sophisticated military hardware to a Saudi government whose arbitrary and erratic judicial system is in the business of destroying the families of law abiding citizens.