private Christian worship service three weeks ago are not allowed access to visitors, a Christian news agency said late Monday, May 16. Compass Direct, which investigates the plight of persecuted Christians, said an expatriate friend who attempted to visit the three Ethiopians and two Eritreans last week at an interrogation center in the capital Riyadh was "refused permission by prison officials of the Mabahith," an internal security force under the Saudi Ministry of Interior.
He was allegedly told May 10 that the five Christians "would only be allowed visitors after one month." The five prisoners were elders in a small house church of Ethiopians and Eritreans which had apparently met quietly without incident in Riyadh for more than four years.
At least 35 men, women and children in the 60-member congregation were present when the ‘muttawa’, the Islamic religious police, raided the worship service on April 29 saying such gatherings were “forbidden” in the Muslim kingdom, Compass Direct reported.
MARRIED MAN
Yemane Gebre Loul, the only married man among the five prisoners, was hosting the house church meeting in his rented residence in Riyadh’s Al-Olaya district when the arrests occurred. An Eritrean employed as a private driver, he and his wife have eight children.
A second Eritrean, identified as Gazai Zarom, was reportedly working as a supervisor for the Abbar Zaine company. Ethiopian Yonas Tekle was employed as a computer data-entry clerk for the same company. The two other Ethiopians, Mesfen Tekle and Teklu Mola, were both employed by the Medgulf company.
Held initially at the Sulaymaniyeh police station, the five Christians were moved four days later to a Mabahith interrogation center at Al Ama-iletia, where they are currently incarcerated, Compass Direct said, citing sources in the region.
LONG DETENTION
Human rights watchers and US officials have reportedly said that although religious police have authority to detain suspects for only 24 hours, in practice persons "[are] held weeks or months and sometimes longer.”
The Ethiopian Embassy in Riyadh was quoted as saying it had "no information" about the alleged arrest of the three Ethiopian Christians among those detained.
The arrests of the five Christians is the latest in a series of reported raids against foreign Christians. Last month another congregation of 40 Pakistani Christians were arrested as they gathered in a Riyadh home for a joint Catholic-Protestant prayer service. Except for two men held for questioning until the following night, the detained adults and children were all released the same day.
MILLIONS OF FOREIGNERS
There are around six million foreigners in the conservative kingdom, which has a population of 23 million, including many Christians from Europe, North America, Asia and other Arab states. In a rare official rebuke of a close ally last year, Washington recently accused Saudi Arabia of severe violations of religious freedom.
"Freedom of religion is not recognized or protected under the country’s laws and basic religious freedoms are denied to all but those who adhere to the state-sanctioned version of Sunni Islam," the State Department said in an annual report.
Analysts say that following the September 11, 2001 attacks, which were carried out by mainly Saudis, the Gulf Arab state’s religious establishment came under sharp criticism by the West for allegedly fostering militancy and intolerance of other religions.
Despite government insistence that non-Muslims are allowed to practice their beliefs in private, the semi-autonomous religious police continue to arrest and demand the deportation of Christian guest workers caught meeting for worship in their homes, human rights watchers and church sources say. More than a fourth of the residents of the Saudi kingdom are foreign citizens, according to estimates. (With BosNewsLife Research, Compass Direct and reports from Saudi Arabia)
