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Manama: Families of the eight Bahrainis who were detained by Saudi Arabia in February will be able to visit them within days.
"We are still working out the details of the visit with the Saudi authorities, and I believe that their families will within days be informed about the date of the visit," Mohammad Saleh Al Shaikh, Bahrain's ambassador in Riyadh, said on Friday. "The visit was scheduled to take place last week, but it could not be arranged."
Al Shaikh's statement will be warmly welcomed by the families of the detainees following news reports claiming that the eight people, who said that they had lost their way as they were driving in two cars to Riyadh and ended up near a restricted military zone, were found guilty by the Saudi authorities of spying for Iran.
The spying charges, which carry the death penalty in Riyadh, were denied by both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia who insisted that their case was still being investigated.
"We are closely monitoring the development of their status and we are in constant contact with the competent authorities. No direct official charge has been levelled against the detainees, and, according to the information we have, the investigation will take some time since they had allegedly entered a restricted zone," Abdullah Al Durazi, head of the Bahrain Human Rights Society, said.
The visit would be the second by the families since the detainees were arrested on February 29 and eventually moved to Haer prison near Riyadh.
The first visit was 55 days after the families lost contact with the eight men, who have insisted that they were on a short recreational trip to Riyadh, 400km west of Bahrain, when they lost their way and found themselves near a military installation.
The families later reported that the detainees were held in solitary confinement.
A report last month in the news portal Elaph claiming that Saudi Arabia charged the detainees with spying for Iran, was strongly rejected by the Bahraini authorities and by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud as "lacking credibility" and "an exaggeration".
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