Saudi Arabia- Rights offices in prisons to be made permanent 

(MENAFN - Arab News) Under the direction of Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Naif, the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) will establish permanent offices at all five security prisons in the Kingdom to facilitate direct supervision of these prisons and their detainees as well as receive prisoners' feedback, demands, and complaints. The prisons are located in Riyadh, Asir, Jeddah, Eastern Province, and Qassim.

This unprecedented step will strengthen the principle of transparency in addition to ensuring and protecting the rights of detainees. The NSHR is a neutral and independent body cooperating directly with the Saudi government.

"This move is a quantum leap in the field of human rights," the chairman of the finance and investment committee at the NSHR, Saleh Sharida, told a local newspaper.

He pointed out that Saudi Arabia is the first Islamic state that allows a human rights organization to open its offices inside security prisons, which will enable it to work according to its independent mechanism.

Sharida expressed his thanks to and appreciation of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Crown Prince Salman, and Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Naif on this move.

"The NSHR has received its offices and already began the actual work in some of them," Sharida confirmed.

He said he hoped the specialized criminal court would accelerate the process of the detainees' trials.

He said the number of those freed since the NSHR visited prisons had exceeded 2,500 detainees.

Sharida also called detainees' parents to contact the NSHR in case any of them had any query on the status of their son or daughter.

The offices will be located in buildings adjacent to the prisoners' wards.