A SCOT sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia over his alleged part in a bombing campaign has spoken of his fear that he would be crucified in public.
Sandy Mitchell, from Kirkintilloch, recalled the moment when his Saudi lawyer explained that sentence would be carried out by "partially" severing the head, before fixing the body to an X-shaped cross for three days.
Mr Mitchell, 44, was one of s
ix Britons detained in Riyadh after a series of explosions targeted Westerners three years ago. The men were released last month after pressure from the British government and the Prince of Wales.
Mr Mitchell, recounting his ordeal for the first time this weekend, said he was tortured into making a confession, which was later televised around the world.
Saudi authorities still insist that the bombings were the result of a turf war between rival bootleg drinking clubs. However, a spate of suicide bombings in the oil-rich state has increased speculation that the attacks were the work of Saudi dissidents targeting Western interests and attempting to destabilise the ruling royal family.
Mr Mitchell, who was detained in December 2000, said he was deprived of sleep for nine days and trussed in chains. He added that he was beaten with an axe handle on the soles of his feet and his buttocks until he gave interrogators the "right" answer.
"It went on and on," he added, in an interview with the Sunday Times.
"I used to consider myself a strong person but everybody has their breaking point.
"I was alone and in pain, and if it wasn’t me being beaten it was others, and I could hear their screams."
Mr Mitchell was kept in isolation for 15 months and had no access to legal representation for almost a year.
It was then that he discovered that a brief court appearance had seen him convicted of the bombing and sentenced to death by crucifixion.
The punishment, which under sharia law is reserved for the most serious crimes, has been used twice in the last 20 years by Saudi authorities, on highway robbers.
Mr Mitchell had been preparing to start his shift as chief anaesthetic technician in the security forces’ hospital in Riyadh when he was overpowered and dragged into a car.
He said his interrogators warned him that he would either confess or go insane before the investigation was complete.
As the torture intensified, Mr Mitchell said he tried to take his own life twice.
Since his return to the UK, Mr Mitchell has been reunited with his Thai-born wife and son at his sister’s home in Halifax, Yorkshire. He is now launching a legal bid along with the other detained Britons for compensation from the Saudi government.
Although he did admit to running an illicit drinking club, Mr Mitchell claimed the authorities could not countenance the probability that the bombings were the work of internal factions.
"The turf war didn’t exist," he explained. "That was a fallacy made up by the Saudi secret police to justify their own existence."
The full article contains 539 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
