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Alkarama today submitted information about these events to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, calling for him to intervene with the Saudi authorities to request an immediate end to this torture and ill-treatment.
In early July 2011, Mr Al Shammari submitted a complaint to the Director General of prisons in Saudi Arabia, Mr Ali al Harthi, regarding the conditions of detention in Saudi Arabia. Three weeks after this, on 27 July 2011, Mr Al Shammari was taken from his cell by prison guards and members of the police and told he was going to the hospital for some check-ups. He was in fact taken to the prison's waiting room. After a while, the officer in charge of the forces who had taken him from his cell ordered that his hands and feet be bound. He was then dragged along the floor to the prison's "camera control room", as there is no camera in this room, and the door was shut. Mr Al Shammari was then beaten and kicked until he lost consciousness.
When he awoke, the officer in charge of the forces, Lieutenant Abdul Majeed Al Asmari (عبدالمجيد الاسمري), was sitting on his chest pouring a bottle of Dettol (toxic disinfectant and cleaning product) down his throat saying: "Die you filth, and I will say you committed suicide".
After more than two hours of this sort of treatment, Mr Al Shammari's condition worsened rapidly, forcing the prison authorities to bring him to the prison's hospital. He was registered there as having tried to commit suicide.
When he shouted to the medical staff and the patients present that the security forces were attempting to kill him, he was dragged from his bed by the agents who had brought him there, despite bleeding profusely from the mouth, and put back in solitary confinement. Since 27 July 2011, he has been regularly put back into solitary confinement to punish him for his complaints about prison conditions. His family had no contact with him since these events, until a phone call on 21 August 2011.
When they received this information they brought it to the attention of the local governorate, the Royal Saudi Court (Diwan Al Malaki), the Ministry of Interior and the Director General of Saudi Arabian Prisons. No responses were received.