Confessions of an Innocent Man: Torture and Survival in a Saudi Prison

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University. He
is the author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable
Kingdom, Chile and the Nazis, and The Diplomacy of War: The Case of
Korea.

In many respects, Sampson’s autobiography resembles that of Henri
Charriиre (aka Papillon), who was wrongly convicted and imprisoned on
Devil’s Island in South America from 1932 until 1935. Sampson
describes the corruption, hypocrisy, paranoia, xenophobia, religiosity,
vicious brutality, and ubiquitous spirit of intolerance that pervade
Saudi society, its police, its jailers, and its government. He explains
that he sought employment in the notorious kingdom because he had lost
his job in Canada and needed the money. He worked there for two years
before his arrest on a charge of murder. Samson admits that he broke
Saudi liquor laws but denies that he committed murder. Yet in order to
stop the beatings he confessed, knowing that the penalty would be death
by beheading. At that point, he says, death seemed a relief, an end to
the torture, although he “hoped that the executioner’s axe would be
sharp, his arm strong, and his aim sure.”

One of Sampson’s themes is the indifference and ineptitude of
Canadian Embassy officials. In this respect, his story resembles that of
Maher Arar. The officials talked to him in the presence of Saudis, who
could take reprisals if he gave the “wrong answers.” They should
have demanded privacy. Also, unlike diplomats from other countries, the
Canadians refused to accept power of attorney from Sampson so that he
could pay his bills. They found him a lawyer whose first loyalty was to
the Saudi government. They considered Sampson guilty. Sampson gained
notoriety when his father visited him in prison and encountered a
hostile reception.

After two and a half years in jail under a death sentence, Sampson was
granted clemency and released. The following year a coroner’s inquest
concluded that there was no evidence to indicate that Sampson was
involved in the incident for which he had been arrested. Anyone
considering employment in Saudi Arabia should first read this book. An
index would have been useful.