Saudi prisoners abroad allowed visits, video calls from families

RIYADH — The Saudi Red Crescent Authority (SRCA) successfully arranged family visits and visual communication facilities for Saudi detainees in foreign jails, including the notorious US prison camp in Guantanamo, with their relatives in various parts of the Kingdom last month, the Makkah daily said in a report on Wednesday. It said the visits and the visual communications were made possible through coordination with the Red Cross. Prince Bandar Bin Faisal, supervisor of the SRCA's family ties program, said a number of families in Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah and Madinah were able to visit relatives held in foreign prisons or communicate with them through the social networking site Skype. He said each visit or visual communication continued between two and a half hours to three. Prince Bandar revealed that the authority has arranged visits for 14 Saudi families with prisoners abroad. He said in Jeddah, four Skype calls and two actual visits were made with prisoners outside while there were three video calls from families in Madinah and three calls and a visit from Riyadh. He said the SRCA was keen to undertake its social and humanitarian role by bringing Saudi families together.