Westerners Want Justice for Saudi Torture

May 19 -- Ron Jones was wounded in a bombing in Saudi Arabia, but that was only the beginning of his ordeal.

After a short stay in a local hospital, Jones was detained by Saudi authorities and, he says, tortured.

"They beat me about my body, with their forearms, their fists, they threw me up against the wall. I was hysterical. I couldn't understand what was happening," he said.

The Scotsman soon learned authorities suspected him of being involved in the bombing, and were trying to get him to admit it — even though they never found any evidence.

For three months, Jones got an agonizing, firsthand look at the Saudi judicial system, which is now under particular scrutiny following last week's terror attacks in Riyadh.

Things Are Changing

The FBI has sent a team to Saudi Arabia to assist in the investigation of the car-bombing attacks, but it's not clear how much access it will have to evidence and any suspects. U.S. officials complained that the Saudis withheld information from American investigators following the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers military barracks in Dhahran, where 19 U.S. servicemen were killed.

Western governments have long acquiesced in the opaque and often-disturbing nature of Saudi justice, which includes not only torture but indefinite detentions, secret trials and punishments such as whippings, amputations, stonings and beheadings. Due to long-standing ties and the kingdom's vast oil wealth, Western nations have been willing to look the other way.

But that may be about to change.

Many things are different since the Khobar Towers bombing. The attacks of 9/11 put America on the defensive. Not only was security stepped up stateside, but the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were Saudi citizens focused more internernational attention on dissent within the kingdom.

The United States has already announced it will remove its military bases in Saudi Arabia. Established right before the first Persian Gulf War, the bases are no longer needed to guard against Saddam Hussein's regime. Moreover, the presence of U.S. troops on what is considered sacred Islamic ground had inflamed militants such as Osama bin Laden.

It's clear that the U.S. officials do not trust Saudi Arabia to protect Americans in the kingdom. Last week, the United States urged the Saudis to increase security at residential complexes where Americans live, but the warnings went unheeded, officials told ABCNEWS. Now, more than 30 people, including nine Americans, are dead following the car-bombing attacks in Riyadh, and the State Department has ordered nonessential diplomatic personnel to leave Saudi Arabia.