Al-Ha'ir Prison


Al-Ha'ir Prison is a Saudi Arabian maximum-security Mabahith-affiliated prison located approximately 25 miles south of Riyadh. Saudi Arabia's largest prison, the complex includes facilities for both common criminals and security offenders, and reportedly houses a number of al-Qaeda figures.

Prison conditions

According to historycollection.co, "In September 2003 the prison was ravaged by a fire which killed 67 inmates and injured more than 20 others held in the prison, as well as three security guards."
In 2015, journalist Kevin Sullivan of The Washington Post visited al-Ha'ir prison, including one cell that looked "spartan but clean", in which an inmate described the conditions as "good". Sullivan's host described the prison as illustrating the "government’s strategy of showering inmates with perks rather than locking them down in harsh, Guantanamo Bay-style conditions". Gary Hill of the International Corrections and Prisons Association, who spent two decades visiting Saudi Arabia advising on prison warden training, stated to Sullivan that he expected prisoners in Saudi Arabian prisons "to be treated nicely — that's their religion"., Hill had never visited any Saudi prison. Sullivan also interviewed Ministry of Interior spokesman Mansour al-Turki, who stated that the recidivism rate for terrorist incidents by ex-detainees was twenty percent, and Sevag Kechichian of Amnesty International, who stated that "allegations of mistreatment and torture of prisoners in Saudi prisons are widespread" and that "torture can still happen even in nice-looking prisons — when no one is looking".

Notable inmates

In October 2004, former detainees William Sampson, Sandy Mitchell and Les Walker, part of a group of nine foreign nationals convicted of bombing, terrorism and espionage were given permission by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales to sue for redress for wrongful conviction and torture. Named in the suit were:
In 2006 this judgement was overturned by the Law Lords, and the plaintiffs appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.