|
Update
2005 |
William Sampson
(2002)
Sampson joins suit against
Saudi jailers
The Canadian and six Britons claim they were tortured.
London Free Press (Feb,
2004)
After failing to get the Saudi
government to admit he was tortured, Canadian William Sampson
has joined six Britons in a lawsuit aimed at proving they were
repeatedly beaten during 2 1/2 years in a Saudi jail. Details
of the lawsuit will be released tomorrow at a news conference
in London, but a lawyer working for Sampson said the men want
their day in court to present medical evidence that proves they
were tortured.
First, however, they must persuade
Britain's High Court to allow their lawsuit to proceed at a hearing
on May 7.
Under British law, they need
the court's approval to file their suit since all four men named
in it are foreign nationals. Those four are the two men they
say tortured them, the Saudi Arabian interior minister and the
deputy governor of the jail in which they were kept in Riyadh.
"At the moment it's very
much legal arguments," said Mark Emery, a solicitor at Bindman
and Partners, a London firm that specializes in human rights
cases.
 In a separate lawsuit, British businessperson
Ron Jones was denied permission last year in the High Court to
sue the Saudi government for damages because lawsuits are not
allowed against foreign governments. An appeal of his case is
scheduled to be heard May 11.
Emery said Jones's lawsuit
did not influence the timing of the case filed by the seven men.
Like the seven men released
by Saudi authorities last August, Jones claims he was tortured
into making a false confession he participated in a terrorist
attack.
Sampson, 44, who was born in
Nova Scotia but raised in Vancouver, Montreal, Britain and Singapore,
faced beheading after he was convicted in a fatal bombing the
Saudis say was part of a turf war between rival bootleggers.
Sampson and Briton Alexander
Mitchell were sentenced to death, while Britons James Lee, James
Cottle, Les Walker and Peter Brandon were given prison terms
in connection with two bombings more than three years ago in
which British citizen Christopher Rodway was killed and four
other people injured.
 A sixth Briton, Glenn Ballard, who
was detained for 10 months but not charged, is the seventh man
involved in the lawsuit.
Sampson's lawyers have said
he was forced to confess after police beat him, hung him upside
down, kept him awake for more than a week and threatened to harm
his family. Sampson has said he suffered two heart attacks during
his 31 months of captivity at the prison in Riyadh.
A spokesperson for the Saudi
Embassy in London could not be reached for comment yesterday,
but the government has denied torturing any of the men.
Sampson went to work in Saudi
Arabia's pharmaceutical industry in Riyadh as a marketing consultant
in July 1998.
Don't back Saudis, say 'tortured'
Britons
Daniel McGrory The Times
of London (February, 2004)
A British businessman suing
the Saudi authorities over claims that they tortured him into
confessing to a terrorist bombing wants the British Government
to drop its plans to back his captors in court.
Seven other men also jailed
in Saudi Arabia over claims that they were behind a spate of
bombings as part of a turf war over alcohol are likely to join
the legal test case over suing their alleged torturers.
Since their release from a
Saudi jail last year, the expatriates have been demanding compensation
for injuries sustained from what they claim were months of systematic
torture.
Saudi diplomats in London have
refused to meet them, despite secret efforts by the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office to try to avert what will be a controversial
court hearing. The men say that they have medical evidence to
show that they were beaten on the feet with axe handles and iron
bars until they could not walk, and were left suspended by the
arms from the ceiling of their cells to prevent them from sleeping.
Saudi officials claim that
the men were freed from prison after an agreement that they would
not seek compensation nor publicly criticise their captors. The
Britons deny agreeing to such a deal and say that they will refuse
any attempt by the Saudi authorities to settle this out of court.
Ron Jones was refused permission
last year in the High Court to sue the Saudi Government for £2.5
million but will take his case to the Court of Appeal in May.
At stake is whether the Saudi
authorities are protected by Britain's State Immunity Act. Lawyers
from the Department for Constitutional Affairs will support state
immunity in this test case. One official said: 'We are not going
to court to support the Saudis and what they did or didn't do
to British prisoners but to uphold the State Immunity Act.'
Diplomats are worried about
the outcome of the case amid suggestions that British detainees
freed from Guantanamo Bay may want compensation for their treatment.
Mr Jones, from Hamilton in
Lanarkshire, said: 'I'm appalled at my own Government. They are
saying it is all right for a foreign state to torture Britons,
which makes a nonsense of Tony Blair's support for human rights.'
He was injured in March 2001
after a bomb attack on a bookshop in Riyadh.
The next morning Saudi secret
police dragged him from his hospital bed and for the next 67
days he says that they tortured him into confessing that he built,
planted and detonated the bomb.
The Saudi authorities still
insist that the spate of bombings, which killed a British and
an American businessman, was a battle between expatriates for
control of the black-market alcohol trade. Western diplomats,
however, always believed that local Islamic extremists were to
blame.
Recent devastating car bombings
aimed at residential compounds occupied by Western workers has
forced the Saudis to admit the presence of extremists loyal to
Osama bin Laden, although they still insist that the eight Britons
were guilty.
The men will produce medical
documents this week detailing the torture they suffered. None
has been able to work since they were freed because of their
injuries.
Lawyers acting for Sandy Mitchell
and Les Walker said yesterday that the two and a fellow inmate,
Bill Sampson, a Canadian, have made a claim in the High Court
for damages and will join Ron Jones in his appeal.
The men, who spent more than
two and a half years in a jail, want compensation from two of
their interrogators and also from the deputy governor of the
prison and the Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Naif bin Abdul
Aziz.
Both Mr Mitchell and Mr Sampson
were seen on television confessing to the bomb attack which killed
the British businessman Christopher Rodway in December, 2000.
The pair were sentenced to
death.
Their lawyer, Mark Emery, a
solicitor at Bindman and Partners, would not say how much was
being sought in what is expected to be a multi-million-pound
claim.
But he added: 'We are not saying
we are not suing the state. It is certainly possible we are going
to sue the state. We are very much of the opinion that might
occur at some point.'
He said: 'The men are coping
but they have been through an horrendous experience. Without
a shadow of doubt they are innocent./
James Cottle, James Lee, Peter
Brandon and Glen Ballard are also pushing for damages through
a law firm in Manchester after their experiences under Saudi
detention.
Sampson blasts embassy officials
By OLIVER MOORE, Globe
and Mail Update , Nov. 6, 2003
William Sampson accused the
Canadian government on Thursday of sacrificing him to political
expediency by refusing to condemn publicly the Saudi justice
system and by offering little or no support as he endured torture
and was sentenced to death.
In testimony before a House
of Commons committee, Mr. Sampson said that Ottawa let him down
during his imprisonment and then, after he was released, reneged
on a promise to cover his medical bills, only days before he
was scheduled to have heart surgery.
"I do not feel that, throughout
my long incarceration, I was at all supported by the Department
of Foreign Affairs. ... I was fighting alone, in solitary confinement,
because of the behaviour of your officials," he said.
"I do believe that a public inquiry into the behaviour of
the Canadian government officials, both here in Ottawa and at
the embassy in Riyadh, is essential, given their performance
during my incarceration."
Mr. Sampson was arrested in
Saudi Arabia after a series of bombings that Riyadh attributed
to foreign bootleggers, but which others said were caused by
Islamist rebels. Beaten repeatedly, he is still undergoing regular
medical treatment three months after his release.
Sharply contradicting Foreign
Affairs Minister Bill Graham - who said Tuesday that it
can be counterproductive for diplomats to use "fiery rhetoric"
and threats - Mr. Sampson argued that these cases call for the
strongest possible condemnation, including publicly questioning
whether governments that torture have the right to international
standing.
Citing Theodore Roosevelt's
famous maxim, Mr. Sampson told a House of Commons committee that
a government has to be willing to use "a big stick"
to protect citizens held in foreign jails.
"I am not convinced that
the soft-power argument worked in my case," he said in Ottawa.
"Because of the political clout that Saudi Arabia supposedly
has, people were hiding behind the soft-power argument to do
nothing."
"Each of us needs to know
that, in future, governments will take a much harder line,"
he said, arguing that flouting of human rights needs to be publicized
on the floor of the United Nations, at the WTO and every possible
venue.
In contrast, he said, embassy
officials appeared perfectly willing to accept Saudi assurances
that he was indeed guilty of the bombings, one of them telling
his father that the case was very similar to bootlegger wars
in Montreal.
"To have members of the
Canadian embassy making statements like that, at the time that
they were, were contrary to my best interests and contrary to
the best interests of my family," he said. "It would
appear that the Department of Foreign Affairs operated from the
earliest stages as if I was guilty, long before I even had a
trial."
He was cutting when Aileen
Caroll, parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Bill
Graham, tried to protest that the Canadian government always
starts from a presumption of innocence and had always taken his
case seriously.
"You may well have been,
once you realized the full seriousness of this, but by that stage
I had been in prison for a year and by that stage I was already
sentenced to death," he said, leaving her grasping for a
response.
© 2003 Bell Globemedia
Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Bill Sampson:
Have the Saudis and Canadians picked the wrong guy to play politics
with?
Members
of O.J. 'dream team' to help fight for jailed Canadian |
Off site: fifth
estate | BBC
| Guardian
UK
Sampson finally sees son in
Saudi jail
By ALLISON DUNFIELD
, Globe and Mail, , Mar. 4, 2003
The father of a man imprisoned
in a Saudi jail on a charge of taking part in a bombing campaign
was able to visit his son Tuesday for the first time since July,
2001.
James Sampson told CTV Newsnet
via telephone from Riyadh that he saw his William for about 20
seconds on Tuesday.
However, his son, who has spent
most of his time in jail in solitary confinement and is facing
the death sentence in connection with the December, 2000, bombing
campaign, became agitated at the sight of his father.
"Well, when I went in
he was lying on a bed covered by a blanket and chained by his
ankles to a bedpost," Mr. Sampson told the television station.
"He told me to leave.
I said, I wasn't [going to leave]. I was there to speak to him.
Then he told me again to leave and then he jumped up and out
of the bed and punched me on the chest," Mr. Sampson said.
William then began to throw
things at a number of Saudi officials who were also in the room,
prompting them to rush out, Mr. Sampson said.
He said his son "looks
better" than the last time he saw him. At that time, William
Sampson was weak and emaciated.
"He's still full of spirit
and spite," Mr. Sampson said.
James Sampson said there is
nothing more he and his son can do but wait.
It is Mr. Sampson's fourth
trip since his son was arrested more than two years ago in connection
with the December, 2000, bombing in Saudi Arabia. Mr. Sampson
saw his son twice during his first visit in 2001, but has had
no contact since then.
The pharmaceutical engineer
faces beheading in the bombing death of Briton Christopher Rodway,
though Saudis have not carried out any such sentence against
a Westerner in half a century.
Authorities in the strict Muslim
kingdom, where alcohol is banned, contend that the bombings were
part of a turf war between bootleggers.
Others point to continued bombings
and say the Saudis are trying to cover up a potentially embarrassing
campaign by militant fundamentalists.
A ruling on Mr. Sampson's appeal
to the highest Saudi judicial body has not been reached.
With a report from Canadian
Press © 2003 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Sampson: integrity and strong
character
Fifth Estate, shown in Dec. 2002, interviewed another
Canadian who was freed from a similar situation to Sampson's.
It was a diplomatic manouevre and part of the deal was that the
freed party shut up. He broke his silence partially by agreeing
to be interviewed in shadow by Linden MacIntyre for the television
show.
The evidence presented on fifth
estate leaves no doubt that Sampson's "confession"
was coerced. The degree of "coercion" - - make that
word torture - - would have been extreme given Sampson's stubbornness.
The question we must all be
asking is this: Why is the Canadian diplomatic community not
doing the same for Bill Sampson? The 43 year old Canadian, (picture
above shows him in his younger days) will no longer take visits.
We can only speculate upon the details of what has transpired
to put him in this frame of mind. Others who have been released
help us fill in the blanks rgarding the intensity of the torture.
The question is partially answered.
While friends and family all agree that Bill Sampson was a generous,
courageous human being who would help out anyone in a jam, they
also acknowledged he had little patience for injustice.
His father is proud of him
for refusing to "play nice" with his torturers. As
long as Sampson is fighting back, he is strong. Sampson's father
has been to visit but will not go back any more. He and his son
share a strong sense that there is no dignity in begging for
mercy or apologizing to corrupt authorities. It would seem that
Sampson agreed to go on TV with the phony confession only to
let his father kow where he was. Once the elder Sampson learned
of his son's situation he confronted Canadian authorities asking
why he had not been told. The answer, that they were prevented
by the Privacy Act from telling him, receives the scorn it deserves.
Others have escaped the wrath
of the corrupt Saudi regime by cooperating. Bill Sampson, it
would seem, is an "unruly" client. His softspoken Saudi
defence lawyers agree he is "rude" but will not be
the first to say the words. They also agree his is most certainly
innocent of the crime of setting the car-bomb which blew up British
national Christopher Rodway. They were assigned to Sampson only
after he had been found guilty.
What would appear to be decorum
on the part of the Saudi lawyers and the Canadian government
can also be seen as murderous hypocrisy.
It is Bill Sampson's loud-mouthed
Dad who has brought his case to public attention, leading to
the possibility we would learn about others who have shared similar
unlawful detentions and torturous conditions.
Dad raised Bill well. He describes
an incident when the two of them were mountain climbing and he
fell into a crevasse and then had a heart attack. Bill did not
hesitate to extract his Dad and carry him back down the mountain.
The strong bond between them -- and their strong ethics and belief
in doing the right thing -- stand as an example we could all
do well to emulate.
Bill Sampson is facing execution
by beheading. Nonetheless he is firm and uncompromising. Certainly
he is aware that his father knows the confession is bogus. He
may or may not know that a Belgian, who was also tortured and
coerced, traded implication of Sampson in the bombing for an
8 year sentence. The Belgian paramedic did so on the advice of
diplomats.
By conducting himself in such
a way that the story can come out, Bill Sampson could very likely
save himself and others; he has already blown the international
whistle on the fact that diplomacy among spineless suits is a
sham. The Canadians who are putting North American oil interests
ahead of human life are being exposed.
The "polite" way
doesn't get far. Bill Sampson's mother had written to Canadian
officials only to be told that making waves about Bill might
make matters worse for him.
- Canadian, Briton voice complaints
of torture
- Working in Saudi Arabia
Francine Dubé, National
Post, December 11, 2002
Two more Westerners -- one
of them a Canadian -- have stepped forward with allegations that
they were tortured by Saudi officials who wanted them to confess
to bombings in Riyadh.
The allegations will be aired
tonight on the CBC program The Fifth Estate.
Ron Jones, a British accountant,
was injured in a bomb blast outside a bookstore in Riyadh in
March, 2001. He said he suffered scorching along the left side
of his body, but was taken from hospital to a jail where he was
beaten with a cane on the soles of his feet in an attempt to
get him to confess to the bombing that injured him.
"He just swung this cane
on to the soles of my feet and then he screamed at me, 'Don't
move your feet.' The pain was absolutely excruciating,"
Mr. Jones said.
"I was screaming 'I haven't
done anything, why are you doing this?' and the more I screamed,
the more they hit.
"I remember saying to
them, 'I'll tell you anything you want, just please don't hit
me again.' "
Mr. Jones had been in the company
of a Canadian at the time of the bookstore bombing. The Canadian
was also detained by Saudi authorities and said he suffered beatings
and sleep deprivation during his 60 days in a Saudi jail. He
was spirited from the country by Canadian authorities, who told
him not to talk to the press. His name has never been released
and he has requested anonymity.
Mr. Jones, now back in Britain,
said he, too, was released after 67 days when officials became
convinced he had nothing to do with the bombing. But after making
the decision to release him, officials waited three weeks before
letting him go.
"My hands were black,
my feet were black, my buttocks were black. They had to build
me back up mentally, physically, get my story correct as to why
I'd been there," Mr. Jones said.
Saudi authorities claim the
bombings, which began in November, 2000, when a British engineer
was killed as he drove home from a garden store with his wife,
are the result of a turf war between Western bootleggers, a theory
the bootleggers themselves have dismissed as ludicrous.
Mr. Jones had no connection
to the illegal liquor trade.
Bill Sampson, 43, a Nova Scotia-born
biochemist, has been sentenced to death for his alleged role
in the bombings. Sandy Mitchell, a Briton, has also been sentenced
to die. Both men were convicted at secret trials. Their case
has been under review by the Supreme Judicial Council since this
summer.
Canadian officials have said
they expect a political solution to the matter, but do not know
when it will be resolved.
Despite the numerous allegations
of torture that have been made by Westerners arrested and released
in connection with the bombings, Canadian officials say they
cannot confirm that Mr. Sampson has been similarly tortured,
despite the fact that even his lawyers have said he was tortured
in order to elicit a confession.
In the CBC program, which airs
at 9 p.m., Prince Turki al Faisal, the ambassador-designate to
Britain, defends the Saudi practice of public beheadings, the
fate that awaits Mr. Sampson and Mr. Mitchell if they cannot
win reprieves.
"We do not consider the
punishment of beheading as either abhorrent or against human
rights. Why? Because it comes to us from divine law and the kingdom
operates under divine law -- Sharia -- and Sharia is the word
of God," said Prince al Faisal.
Earlier this month a court
in the United States issued a summons against al Faisal, alleging
that in his previous job as head of Saudi intelligence, he helped
fund Afghanistan's Taliban regime.
Members of O.J. 'dream team' to help fight for
jailed Canadian
Francine Dubé, National
Post, November 16, 2002
TORONTO - Two of the lawyers
from the legal "dream team" that secured an acquittal
for O.J. Simpson have joined the fight to free Bill Sampson,
the Canadian sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia.
Johnnie Cochran and Barry Scheck
both said yesterday they would try to help the Canadian, who
has been in prison in Saudi Arabia for nearly two years.
"This case has not been
handled appropriately," Mr. Cochran said at a press conference
to launch a weekend meeting in Toronto of experts from the United
States, Canada and the United Kingdom who work to secure the
release of the wrongfully convicted.
"Certainly a death sentence
would be an abomination under the circumstances, and all of us
are diminished by that. It affects us all over the world. I think
it's imperative that people of good conscience stand up and speak
out against this kind of wrong," he said.
Mr. Scheck pledged the support
of his organization, the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal
clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York,
which pioneered the field of overturning wrongful convictions.
Mr. Cochran said he would be
prepared to travel to Saudi Arabia with members of the Toronto-based
Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), which
was instrumental in securing the release of Guy Paul Morin and
David Milgaard, among others.
Two weeks ago, representatives
from AIDWYC met with the Saudi ambassador to Canada to discuss
the Sampson case, including the possibility of travelling to
Riyadh to meet with Mr. Sampson and Saudi authorities.
Mr. Sampson, a 43-year-old
biochemist, has been held in solitary confinement for nearly
two years, since two car explosions in Riyadh, the capital of
Saudi Arabia, killed one Briton and injured several others. Saudi
authorities blamed the blasts on a turf war over the illegal
liquor trade in the Muslim kingdom, but the bombings have continued
unabated since the arrest of Mr. Sampson and other Westerners.
Mr. Sampson and Sandy Mitchell,
a Briton, were sentenced to death in secret trials for their
purported roles in the bombings. An appeal of their case now
rests before the Supreme Judicial Council. If it fails, the final
appeal rests with the Royal Court.
"We never can give up
in this case of Bill Sampson, we have to keep fighting and ultimately,
I believe we're going to prevail," said Mr. Cochran. He
called Mr. Sampson's solitary confinement "torture."
"It is something we should
not have to tolerate in a civilized world."
Mr. Sampson has only recently
been allowed writing implements in his cell. Mr. Scheck said
The Innocence Project intends to draw public attention in the
United States to the Sampson case.
"By focusing attention
in the United States as well as Canada and the United Kingdom
on this case, that will affect the government of Saudi Arabia.
It's just inevitable," he said.
Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard
law professor and lawyer who famously won an acquittal for Claus
von Bulow in a case that was made into a Hollywood movie, said
he is not familiar with the Sampson case but is interested in
miscarriages of justice, including anything involving the Saudi
justice system.
"I'm certainly glad that
Barry Scheck and Johnnie Cochran are involved in it."
James Sampson, Mr. Sampson's
father, travelled from Surrey, B.C., to attend the AIDWYC conference
this weekend. He also attended the press conference and praised
Mr. Cochran's decision to become involved in the case.
In response to a question during
the press conference yesterday, Mr. Cochran also stepped into
the debate over racial profiling.
"I know that in a post-9/11
world, the world has changed somewhat, but I for one do not believe
we should still engage in racial profiling. We should certainly
be alert in the war against terrorism, but you can't stop somebody
because of their ethnicity, because of their race."
He said police should not engage
in racial profiling, and described a $13-million suit he won
against the State of New Jersey after state troopers shot up
a car in which three black students and a Puerto Rican student
were travelling.
"It's only those who stand
up in times of great crisis like this who we can call, I think,
courageous," he said.
He said racial profiling has
become so common that jokes among members of the black community
about being pulled over for "DWB" -- driving while
black -- have become part of their lexicon.
fdube@nationalpost.com
Advocates encouraged by words
of Saudi ambassador on Canadian facing death
By STEPHEN THORNE, Thursday
October 31, 2002
OTTAWA (CP) - The Association
in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted came away from meeting the
Saudi ambassador Thursday encouraged about the fate of Bill Sampson,
the Canadian sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia.
Three directors of the group
met with Ambassador Mohammed al-Hussaini for almost two hours,
expressing concern over allegations confessions were tortured
out of Sampson and his co-defendants.
"We told him our association
questions the veracity of the confession that Mr. Sampson is
alleged to have made to the authorities and then subsequently
did make on Saudi Arabian television," said James Lockyer,
a director.
"Since this was the only
evidence against any of the people, we questioned the veracity
of their guilt."
The group, including executive
director Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, told al-Hussaini they oppose
the death penalty, particularly "in a case where it seems
likely that the people who have been convicted in fact did not
commit the crimes with which they have been charged."
Carter was imprisoned for 20
years in New Jersey for a murder he didn't commit.
Sampson, 43, and a Briton were
sentenced to death at a secret trial for their alleged roles
in car bombings in Riyadh in 2000 that killed Briton Christopher
Rodway and injured several others.
Sampson, locked in solitary
confinement for almost two years, faces beheading if his conviction
is upheld. A ruling had been expected from Saudi Arabia's highest
judicial body, the Supreme Council, in September, but has still
not come.
"The ambassador was really
very hopeful with us," said Lockyer. "He told us that,
as far as he was concerned, there had been no final verdict in
the case, which we saw as encouraging.
"He also told us that,
in his view, the delay . . . in the announcement of a final verdict
should be considered good news."
Al-Hussaini also reminded them
that under Koranic law, the victim's family has the final say
on sentencing. Rodway's family has already said it doesn't believe
any of the six arrested in the case had anything to do with it.
Lockyer said Carter's presence
had an "obvious effect" on the ambassador.
The group was instrumental
in exonerating two other Canadians who were wrongly jailed, Guy
Paul Morin and David Milgaard.
It wants to send a delegation
to Saudi Arabia, but al-Hussaini thought it unlikely they would
be allowed into the country.
The group pointed out that
all the defendants looked haggard in their televised confessions,
that they were reading them and that all used similar, stilted
English that sounded like it was written by a foreigner.
The December 2000 bombing was
one of a series authorities in the strictly Muslim country claim
were linked to a black market in forbidden alcohol.
Sampson's defenders point out
that the bombings have continued since the arrests and contend
they are the work of anti-western extremists the government is
trying to cover up.
A member of the defence team
has said prison officials claim Sampson's mental health is deteriorating.
He has refused visits and legal
help, stopped taking his heart medication, thrown things around
his cell and verbally abused his guards.
But Carter said Sampson's actions
reflect those of an innocent man.
"I am not unmindful of
being condemned with the imposition of death hanging over my
head," said Carter. "His attitude right now, to me,
is the attitude that one would display if one were innocent of
a crime.
"I can understand that
very well."
Carter, the subject of the
1999 movie The Hurricane starring Denzel Washington, said in
his own case he refused to obey prison rules, wear prison clothing,
eat prison food or work prison jobs.
'We'll get you out'
by Brad Petersen-Now contributor,
May 08, 2002
James Sampson knows his son's
life is on the line.
But he won't concede that a
murder trial in a Saudi Arabian court will end in a guilty verdict
for his son William - and a possible punishment of death by beheading.
"He didn't do this,"
James Sampson said Monday from his South Surrey home.
"If I could see him now,
I'd tell him to stay tough. Just sit it out, we'll get you out."
Sampson's son, former Vancouver
businessman William (Bill) Sampson, is on trial for his alleged
role in a car bomb attack in Riyadh, in which a British man was
killed.
Saudi officials claim it was
part of a turf war between rivals involved in illegal alcohol
trade.
But Sampson believes his son
was a "scapegoat" to cover the actions of "Arab
and Saudi terrorist groups."
Conflicting reports have emerged
from Saudi Arabia over the past 18 months since Sampson's arrest
in December 2000.
In late April, he was said
to have been secretly tried and convicted and already on death
row.
But the Saudi ambassador to
Canada said last week that an official trial process had only
just begun.
This was the first formal statement
in months and Sampson said he still doesn't know the full story.
"And the way they operate,
who knows if and when we will be told," he said.
Sampson said officials of Canada's
Foreign Affairs department had been in contact with him as recently
as Monday morning but could provide little new information.
"It is so hard for anyone
to get information, but it seems to me that the legal process
for a trial has begun and that things are moving ahead, however
slowly, but at least something is happening."
The last time James Sampson
spoke to his son was July last year. Then, Bill was behind bars
in a Saudi prison cell, and three guards listened in on their
conversation.
Sampson has not spoken to his
son since and has had to rely on a trickle of information to
know of Bill's condition and his case.
"This has been just hell
for the past year and a half," he said. "(I feel) bloody
anger, it's frustration, you name it."
Sampson said he was unsure
if he should go to Saudi Arabia for the trial.
"It's not an easy place
to get access to and who knows how long this process might take;
it could be three, four, five months?
"I say this, if it would
help my son for me to be over there, then yes, I would go straight
away.
"But I don't know if my
being there would help the situation, it might stir things up."
Sampson said he hoped his son
was acquitted but has told himself " the Saudis will do
what suits them best."
"They will want to save
face."
He said it has been 30 years
since a convicted Westerner was beheaded in Saudi Arabia.
"That, at least, is in
our favour."
Jailed
Canadian's future darkens
Canadian Press, January
7, 2002
Ottawa - William Sampson's
future is in doubt after one of seven westerners imprisoned in
Saudi Arabia on bombing charges dramatically changed his testimony
and confessed to the crime.
Foreign Affairs officials in
Ottawa say it's too early to say how the plea for clemency by
Briton James Lee will affect the others, including Mr. Sampson,
the Canadian who faces beheading for murder in the bombing incident.
The Times of London quoted
a legal source Tuesday as saying: "The Saudis take the view:
'One guilty, all guilty.'"
Mary Martini, the ex-wife of
another Briton arrested with Sampson in December 2000, said families
are stunned by Mr. Lee's admission. She fears it could ruin any
chance that the men, who have been in custody for more than two
years, will be released soon.
The prisoners had been awaiting
the outcome of an appeal to Saudi Arabia's highest judicial body.
It had been expected by the end of September.
Other detainees have told British
diplomats in recent weeks that Mr. Lee, 40, suffered a breakdown
in prison. They said he kept bursting into tears and threatened
suicide.
Mr. Lee was moved suddenly
from the al-Hajr high security prison to Riyadh's secret police
headquarters - where interrogations are conducted - six weeks
ago. The British Embassy was not told.
Mr. Sampson's father, James,
said it's obvious Mr. Lee has caved to Saudi torture.
"I'm not surprised,"
Mr. Sampson said in a telephone interview. "The Saudis have
been working toward this all along.
"It means my son is in
there and he's not getting out anytime soon."
Mr. Sampson's lawyers could
not be reached for comment Tuesday.
British diplomats in Riyadh
told The Times they were astonished by Mr. Lee's written confession
and his plea for clemency from Crown Prince Abdullah. They are
demanding urgent talks with Saudi authorities.
Canadian officials were checking
the situation in the Saudi capital, said Foreign Affairs spokesman
Reynald Doiron.
James Sampson has applied for
a visa to go to Saudi Arabia and try to see his son, who has
spent most of his captivity in solitary confinement.
Authorities in the strict Muslim
kingdom where alcohol is banned claim the bombings were part
of a turf war between rival bootleggers.
But others point to continued
bombings and say the Saudis are trying to cover up a campaign
by militants against westerners.
Families of the victims and
survivors of the attacks have said they don't believe the westerners
were responsible.
Some have said they will exercise
their right under Koranic law to reject so-called blood money
and ask for clemency for all once the case has run its course.
Under Koranic law, relatives
of victims can demand money in place of the legal penalty for
crimes.
Early on, some of the prisoners,
including Mr. Sampson, made televised confessions to the crimes
but later recanted, claiming they'd been tortured.
Mr. Sampson and another man
received death sentences for murder for their alleged roles in
the bombing that killed Briton Christopher Rodway. The others
got 18 years, except Belgian Raf Schyvens, who maintained his
confession and was sentenced to eight years.
A diplomatic source told The
Times that now that Mr. Lee has confessed, "the Saudis can
say all ... are guilty and ask for blood money for their victims."
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
