On October 20, a Saudi court in Deerah near Riyadh sentenced Brian Savio O'Connor, a Indian Christian resident in Saudi Arabia, to ten months in prison and 300 lashes for selling "alcoholic beverages", this according to Middle East Concern (MEC), an organisation dedicated to the fate of Christians in the Middle East that has been monitoring the case of the Protestant man from the south-eastern Indian state of Karnataka. | Brian O'Connor, aye, and that's a fine old Indian name. |
Mr O'Connor has been incarcerated in Olaya prison since March 25 after the Muttawa, the Saudi religious police, abducted him from home and tortured for 24 hours in a mosque. He was later charged with preaching Christianity, selling alcohol, drug use and possession of pornographic videos. | Another "alk runner", there seems to be a lot of those in Saudi. |
He has always denied the charges, but has acknowledged leading Bible studies in his home for expatriate Christians after the authorities published information in the local press whereby non-Muslims could practice their religion at home. In practice, religious freedom does not exist in the country except for Muslims and any religious activity outside Islam is considered a felony. In his October 20 court hearing, the judges found him guilty of selling alcohol but did not mention any of the other charges: drug use, evangelisation and, after September 15, possession of pornographic videos. | Why waste time making up all those charges when one fake crime will do. |
After reading the sentence, the court asked Mr O'Connor if he accepted this decision. He declined thus appealing the decision. He was warned that under Saudi law the higher court would most likely increase the sentence if it, too, found him guilty. | Bet that cuts down on the appeals. |
During the hearing Brian asked why the religious police who arrested him were not present as had been announced at the previous hearing. He was told that they had given their statement at a private hearing. According to the MEC and Mr O'Connor's family, the Muttawa did a good job at trumpeting up the alcohol charges. He was found in possession of banknotes—whose serial number the Muttawa had taken down—that had been used by an agent paid by the police to purchase the alcohol. | Did they take down the serial numbers before or after the fact? |
MEC sources claim that the O'Connor file has now moved to the "Departure" section of Olaya prison indicating that he might be expelled from the country after Ramadan. | As a act of kindness and compassion, no doubt. |
|