Officials in Saudi Visit Jailed Indian Christian

ISTANBUL, July 30 (Compass) –– Four months after he was tortured and jailed for "spreading Christianity" in Saudi Arabia, Indian Christian Brian O’Connor received his first official prison visits this week from the Indian Embassy and Saudi officials.

O’Connor, 36, was lured out of his home in Riyadh on March 25 and arrested by a group of Saudi muttawa (religious police), who beat him severely and then turned him over to the police, claiming he was dealing in drugs, alcohol and the spread of Christianity. He has been jailed ever since, without trial or any evidence of the accusations against him.

The Indian national acknowledged that he had led Bible studies among expatriate Christians in his home, but he refused attempts to persuade him to convert to Islam or sign a confession that he had been selling alcohol.

This week two representatives of O’Connor’s embassy came to visit him at Riyadh’s Al–Hair Jail, followed the next day by an official who said he represented the office of Prince Salman, governor of Riyadh.

On July 25, staff members who identified themselves as Mr. Narayan and Mr. Unni from the Indian Embassy’s Community Welfare Wing spent a half hour with O’Connor. The men asked the Indian national a few formal questions regarding his case, allowing him only a partial glance at his file they were carrying.

It was the Indian Embassy’s first meeting with O’Connor since he was transferred from police custody to Al–Hair Jail on April 4. When O’Connor asked why embassy staff had refused to meet with his friends who had gone to the embassy on his behalf, the officials declared they were unable to do otherwise because the embassy had to “go by the laws of the land.”

The following day, a Saudi national who declined to give his name visited O’Connor in his cell, questioning him in English about his case and taking pages of notes in Arabic. After asking what O’Connor expected from the Saudi government and his employer at this time, the visitor inquired whether any visible marks of torture remained on his body.