- OTTAWA -- Two survivors of
bomb blasts in Saudi Arabia say they're convinced a Canadian and six other
westerners convicted in the cases were not involved.
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- And one of the victims, David Brown, said Saudi authorities
tried to force him to say he was part of a turf war over alcohol and testify
against the men whom he didn't know.
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- "The detectives came with a set of 'facts' and
they wanted me to fit in with this concocted tale of a turf war,"
Mr. Brown told the Times of London.
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- "They tried to get me to admit that I knew all
these western and Saudi operatives in the alcohol trade, but I knew none
of the names they mentioned."
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- Mr. Brown, who lost his sight and one arm in a Dec.
15, 2000, car bombing, called the story ludicrous.
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- William Sampson, a Canadian pharmaceutical engineer,
has been convicted for a string of bombings and sentenced to beheading
for a Nov. 17, 2000, car bombing that killed Briton Christopher Rodway.
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- Prosecutors in the strictly Muslim country say Mr. Sampson,
Mr. Rodway and other westerners were involved in smuggling alcohol. But
Saudi watchers claim the government is trying to avoid embarrassment over
the fact that anti-western extremists are operating in their country.
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- The bombing campaign has continued since the December
2000 arrests of Mr. Simpson and six others.
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- Mr. Rodway's widow, who survived the bombing, says the
Saudi case is nonsense.
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- "For anyone to suggest that Chris could have been
killed because he was involved in illegal activities is totally ridiculous,"
she told the London Evening Standard.
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- "He was just an ordinary, quiet family man who
didn't even know these people, let alone being involved in a war with them."
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- Mr. Brown said Saudi detectives visited him in the hospital.
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- "They told me that if I admitted these things it
would be better for me and my family; otherwise, they could not guarantee
their safety. By this time, I was in tears. I said I couldn't admit something
that wasn't true."
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- Mr. Brown said he is convinced those arrested in the
case are innocent. He watched the videotaped confessions of two of the
alleged bombers, Britons James Lee and James Cottle, and didn't buy them
for a second.
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- "The men just sounded stilted and rehearsed. They
also sounded as if English was not their first language. It was as if they
had taken my story, translated it into Arabic and back into English."
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- Another Briton, accountant Ron Jones, says he was tortured
after he was blown up by a bomb March 15, 2001.
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- Mr. Jones told the Sunday Observer he was taken away
in his hospital gown, shackled hand and foot, and beaten on the soles of
his feet day and night. He said his torturer sang "Ring-a-Ring of
Roses."
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- His claim was corroborated by European medical experts,
who used ultrasound to detect scarring inside his hands and feet.
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- Mr. Sampson's lawyer said his client was forced to confess
after police hung him upside down, kept him awake for more than a week
and threatened to harm his family.
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- Defence documents filed with the Saudi court also allege
police slapped and punched Mr. Sampson while he was bound in chains, even
promising to free him if he confessed to two bombings "in a manner
dictated by the investigator."
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- Mr. Sampson's case is before Saudi Arabia's highest
judicial body, the Supreme Council. It is expected to pass a ruling sometime
after the holy month of Ramadan ends the first week of December.
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- According to Koranic law, the victim's oldest son can
opt for death for those convicted, blood money or simple clemency. Mr.
Rodway's family has already indicated it will seek clemency.
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- The final determination is left to Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah, who is expected to open a new Saudi embassy in Ottawa next spring.
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- Copyright 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc.
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