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Who arms the torturers?

"They also used other forms of ill-treatment and torture, including... beatings all over the body and being jolted by an electrified rod."

These are the words of an Iraqi refugee in Saudi Arabia, who was tortured in 1992. His experience is not unique. Gulam Mustapha, a Pakistani, was tortured while detained in a centre for drug offenders in Jeddah in 1994. The torture he suffered included insertion of a metal stick or rod into his anus and electric shocks, which apparently left him bleeding and unable to walk.

Picture of leg cuffs as advertised in a brochure produced by US company Smith & Wesson

Other former prisoners held in Saudi Arabia have described the devastating effect of the use of leg restraints such as shackles and chains contrary to UN regulations for the treatment of prisoners. Some reported that the restraints were stamped "Hiatts", a UK company, or "Smith & Wesson", a US company.

The level of secrecy surrounding international defence and security sales makes it extremely hard to know exactly which companies have supplied what equipment to whom. What is known is that despite Saudi Arabia's appalling human rights record, foreign governments have been willing to supply the country with equipment that could be used to torture or ill-treat prisoners.

In 1993, for example, the UK government granted two licences for the transfer of electro-shock weapons to Saudi Arabia. Since 1984 the US Department of Commerce has authorized over a dozen licences for similar weapons, and between 1980 and 1993 the US government authorized licences worth $5 million under the category OA82, which includes thumb cuffs, leg irons, shackles, handcuffs and other police equipment. Saudi Arabia is one of the largest procurers of defence equipment in the world. According to one study, its total defence spending was estimated at US$ 18.2 billion in 1997 alone. Companies in the USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Belgium are among those that have benefited.

The majority of this trade has been in weaponry such as fighter aircraft that has not been proved to be used in human rights violations. However, the secrecy surrounding the deals means that the public can never be sure what is actually being provided.

It appears that the lure of profitable business with Saudi Arabia has led foreign governments to ignore their moral and legal obligations to human rights, both by allowing the Saudi Arabian authorities to receive equipment that facilitates torture and ill-treatment, and by remaining silent about the country's human rights record.