30 January 2012 :

Saudi newspaper Al-Eqtisadiah reported Saudi Arabia and Iraq agreed to put on hold execution of prisoners on death row in the two countries for at least two months until a final agreement to swap prisoners is reached. Muhammad Al-Obaidi, in charge of bilateral relations at the Iraqi Embassy in Riyadh, described the agreement to be only in principle and said no official papers were signed. There are 113 Saudi prisoners in Iraq including six on death row after being charged with the crimes of illegally entering the country and carrying out terrorist operations there. There are 138 Iraqi prisoners in the Kingdom of whom 11 were sentenced to death after they were found guilty of carrying out terrorist operations in the country. The Iraqi diplomat did not reveal when the two countries reached the agreement in principle but said that according to it, Iraq will not execute the six Saudi prisoners on death row. Meanwhile, Chairman of the National Society for Human Rights Mufleh Al-Qahtani said the two sides were very serious in their intent to sign a final agreement to exchange prisoners, especially those sentenced to death. "There are some procedural matters currently delaying the signing of the final prisoner swap accord but the agreement might be signed within the next two months," he said. Efforts to implement a Saudi-Iraqi prisoner exchange have taken on extra urgency after it became known that three people facing the death penalty in Iraq are members of the Saudi royal family, reported an Iraqi state-run newspaper on 30 January. Iraqi lawmaker Kamila al-Moussawi told the al-Sabah newspaper that three of the six Saudi nationals on death row were members of the royal family. Both Iraq's Foreign Ministry and Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry denied Iraq was holding any prisoners from the Saudi royal family.