Eight British and American Shiite Muslims who say they were detained and tortured by religious police during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia are calling for compensation and a full inquiry.
Group members, some of Iraqi descent and aged between 16 and 26, said on Friday that they were visiting the Kaaba, the cube-shaped shrine in the holy city of Mecca that pilgrims circle, when Saudi police interrupted them and called them infidels.
The police noticed the group was praying in the Shiite manner, which differs slightly from the Sunni style, the accusers said. Saudi Arabia's official strict Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam considers Shiites heretics.
Many in Saudi Arabia are particularly suspicious of Iraq's Shiites, believing they discriminate against the country's Sunni minority and are too closely linked to Shiite-majority Iran.
One of the eight is Amir Taqi, the 23-year-old son of Ridha Jawad Taqi, a senior Iraqi lawmaker in the country's biggest Shiite political party.
"We were handcuffed and savagely beaten with sticks, chairs, belts, shoes and police communication devices," Amir Taqi told a London news conference. He said the men were denied food, water and access to toilets.
The seven Britons and one American produced photos of injuries they said police inflicted on them. Images included bruising and spots of blood on one group member's head and cuts and bleeding from another's arm.
The group did not provoke the police, Taqi said.
A senior Saudi security official denied the claim.
"What the media said is baseless; no assaults took place in the shrine" Colonel Ghazi al-Usaymi said in a statement issued on Thursday.
On Tuesday, a Saudi official said there had been a "dispute" between an Iraqi and a Saudi that had nothing to do with religion or nationality.
Despite Saudi suspicions of Shiites, an attack on pilgrims would be unusual. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites visit the holy city each year without suffering physical harassment.
In a statement to reporters, the group said it was detained for 14 hours. Aside from requesting compensation from Saudi authorities, the group wants guarantees about the safety of pilgrims.
Sayed Mohammed Jawad al-Qazwini, a 26-year-old American also of Iraqi origin said that police taunted the group.
"You'll be killed and thrown to the dogs, and no one will ever know where you are," Jawad quoted police as telling them after they were detained.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number