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By John Ogunsemore
Amnesty International has asked the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to intervene in the case of a Nigerian, Suliamon Olufemi, who has been on death row in Saudi Arabia since May 2005 after being wrongfully convicted of killing a Saudi policeman.
The global human rights group made the appeal in a statement published on Friday.
Amnesty disclosed that Suliamon, a 47-year-old indigene of Badagry, Lagos, travelled to Saudi Arabia on an Umrah visa in September 2002.
On arrival at the airport in Jeddah, Suliamon called his friend, with whom he was scheduled to stay in the city.
On September 28, 2002, some days after arriving in Saudi Arabia, Suliamon followed the Nigerians who offered him accommodation to a car wash in the Bab Sharif area of Jeddah, where many African nationals worked as car cleaners.
On the fateful day, a group of local men with guns, among them a police officer, were said to have raided the location during which a dispute broke out between the local men and the foreign nationals.
The altercation resulted in an injury to the police officer, who later died.
Saudi authorities carried out mass arrests of foreign nationals the following day, September 29, and Suliamon was among those arrested.
He was subsequently put on trial for the incident and the death of the police officer.
The statement reads, “Amnesty International received reports that Suliamon was tortured during interrogation in order to force him to sign statements written in Arabic, a language that he could neither read nor understand.
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“Under duress he was said to have put his fingerprints, which can be taken as a substitute for a signature, to a statement written in Arabic.
“He later learnt in court that he had ‘signed’ a statement that said that he had hit the police officer over the head with a gun.”
“Suliamon Olufemi was sentenced to death in May 2005 following a closed trial which took place in the absence of legal or consular representation or adequate interpretation and translation facilities.
“According to Shari’a law in Saudi Arabia, if a crime is punished under the rule of qisas (retribution), as in Suliamon Olufemi’s case, relatives of the murder victim have the right to decide if the offender should be executed or pardoned, in which case the death penalty is dropped, sometimes in return for diya (compensation or “blood money”).
“Family of the deceased police officer demanded payment of diya.
“Diya was paid for Suliamon Olufemi over a year ago in July 2024.
“Others prosecuted together with Suliamon were released after payment of diya. But Suliamon is still in detention.”
Amnesty International urged the government of Saudi Arabia to release Suliamon.
“The Nigerian authorities must intervene to end the anguish of Suliamon and his family,” the rights group urged.
