Tortured Soul: Wrongly imprisoned and abused, Sandy Mitchell's quest for justice

• Sandy Mitchell pictured near his home

WHAT disturbed Sandy Mitchell most is that, when the Islamic call to prayer came, his torturers would stop what they were doing, wash for prayers then leave for a while before returning and resuming where they had left off. "I guess to them praying to the Most Merciful did not mean complying with the teaching of the Most Merciful," the 55-year-old Scot says from his present home in Sowerby, West Yorkshire.

Mitchell was speaking to The Scotsman ahead of the tenth anniversary of his arrest, imprisonment and torture as an innocent man caught up in an Orwellian nightmare in Saudi Arabia.

Originally from Kirkintilloch, just north of Glasgow, Mitchell was one of eight Westerners accused of a series of bomb attacks in 2000 and, for 32 months between December of that year and August 2003, he was held in a Riyadh jail accused of a murder he did not commit.

The killing he was alleged to have plotted was that of British engineer Christopher Rodway, who died in a bomb blast in November 2000. Mitchell was tortured until he confessed and then sentenced to death by crucifixion after a ten-minute secret trial.

Ten years on, he and the other men jailed are still seeking justice for the ruination of their lives.

"It all began at 7am on 17 December 2000 when I arrived at the hospital in Riyadh where I was chief anaesthetic technician. I remember being flung against my vehicle by men who'd arrived in two cars. They pulled a hood over my head and manacled me with ankle chains and handcuffs," Mitchell says.

He was taken to the Mabatha Interrogation Centre, a feared facility on the outskirts of Riyadh dubbed the "Confession Factory". When the hood was removed a row of Saudi policemen stood in front of Mitchell. They stripped him to the waist and took him to another room where the door was slammed and he was left alone with two men who would be his torturers..

"I'll never forget Christmas Day, 2000. I was chained to a steel door in a filthy cell. My clothes were soaked with my own vomit, blood and faeces. My torturers broke me to the point where I would agree to almost all their demands, and say anything, none of which resembled the truth.

"When I offered proof of my innocence this only infuriated my torturers to inflict further pain until I was too afraid and humiliated to offer further resistance," he says. During that period, six Britons in total – Mitchell, James Cottle, James Lee, Les Walker, Glenn Ballard and Peter Brandon – as well as Belgian, Raf Schyvens, and Canadian, Bill Sampson, were all imprisoned in Saudi Arabia after being accused of orchestrating a violent turf war over bootleg alcohol. Although Mitchell did admit to running an illicit drinking club, he claimed the Saudi authorities turned a blind eye to such activities and, moreover, were in denial that Islamic terrorists were targeting Westerners in the capital, Riyadh.

After his confession, Mitchell was sentenced to a punishment under Sharia law which involved being tied to a wooden cross and then partially beheaded. The body would then be left to rot in public for several days as a warning to others.

The men were only given a royal pardon and released following an al-Qaeda attack in May 2003 when nine suicide bombers targeted a compound, also in Riyadh, in which 35 people were killed and 200 were injured.

Until then, Saudi Arabia had refused to admit Islamic militants were operating within its border but the new attacks made its stance seem laughable. Two days after the raid, five Saudis were transferred from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in exchange for the Britons' release.

Mitchell had spent 15 of his 32 months in prison in solitary confinement. After his release, he retracted his forced confession and, in February 2005, an inquest into Rodway's death formally exonerated both Mitchell and Sampson of his murder.

Mitchell says: "But for the grace of God I would have been one of countless tortured victims executed and forgotten in Saudi Arabia.

"A question I frequently ask myself, and anyone who will listen, is how many innocent souls have confessed to crimes under torture and have been beheaded for crimes they did not commit. The physical agony of torture may end upon release from imprisonment but our fear, humiliation, and psychological trauma lies dormant within us. We relive the humiliation in our sleep. We have no control when and where the symptoms occur and reoccur, we live with it as a dormant reoccurring illness."

Mitchell's anger and frustration is compounded by the fact that the UK government "protected" Saudi Arabia by making it impossible for him and the others to sue their torturers in a British court.

"On our return to the UK we sued the Saudis and won the right to seek damages in the British court of appeal. But the British government, mindful of defence contracts, collapsed under Saudi pressure and granted our torturers sovereign immunity.

"The British government traded our human rights to appease Saudi Arabia, which has financed Islamic jihadists since the Russian-Afghanistan war in 1979 until the present date.

"Even after the Saudis' lies were exposed – rather than accept their mistake and release us – the Saudi government wanted their pound of flesh and we were traded for five Saudis (from leading Saudi families) being held in Guantanamo. Five Saudi suspected jihadists/terrorists were traded for seven innocent, British-born nationals."

The case has now gone to the European Court of Human Rights with Mitchell and the others arguing the UK government violated their human rights by granting sovereign immunity to the torturers. The case is set to be heard early next year.

With regards to reparations for torture, the UK government argues this is already possible under section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the International Criminal Court Act. However, to get this, the torture survivor has to bring a civil claim for damages which is not possible against most alleged torturers since they are typically agents of a state and enjoy immunity.

"Also, a criminal prosecution can only take place if the alleged perpetrator is physically in the UK. So, unless the perpetrator comes here, a victim won't even have the role of being a witness," Mitchell says.

Mitchell was angered recently when he heard that British terror suspects who were held in Guantanamo and tortured had won huge payouts. He was referring to the announcement by the government last month that it has agreed to pay millions of pounds to around a dozen men who say they were illegally held at detention camps overseas, including Guantanamo. All of the men who will get payouts are either British citizens or UK residents. They claim the authorities knew they were being ill-treated and should have stepped in.

"It is outrageous that the British government should pay hush money when seven innocent British nationals were tortured by the Saudi secret police.

"The British government granted those Saudi torturers sovereign immunity. I don't for one minute begrudge these men compensation but it is sheer hypocrisy on the part of our government.

"It would appear that justice and human rights are little more than slogans to win votes. I ask where is the justice for British nationals tortured by Saudi Arabia, a so-called friend of Britain?"

Mitchell lives with Thai wife, Noi, and their children, Matthew, 12, and Tara, five. Ten years on from his nightmare, the family are facing new torment as Noi was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. When we spoke, Mitchell was just back from a six-hour trek in heavy snow to a Leeds hospital where Noi has been receiving radiotherapy treatment every day.

"Noi was diagnosed in February so it's a difficult time for us. I can't work as I look after her. She's had two operations and chemo and she is now on the Herceptin trial. We're taking each day as it comes and hopefully things will improve for us in the New Year," he says.

But the nightmare continues for Mitchell who vows to keep going until he gets justice. "It's not really about money. We just want someone to admit that we were tortured and to say they are sorry. That's all. I just want some closure and some peace of mind."