I HOLD Pakistani passport AG0887911 and had been living in Al-Khobar, Dammam, Saudi Arabia, for the last 30 years. My son, Syed Asad Humayun, was born in Tabuk, in 1981. He studied until secondary school in Dammam, then went on to England to do his A level, after which he finished his college graduation in America. He had a Saudi residence visa # 2030614073. After finishing his graduation in the US, he returned to Saudi Arabia.

During his stay in Al-Khobar, the Saudi police involved him in a fraud case with another Pakistani who ran away from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan. After he ran away, the police put all the blame on my son and labelled him the mastermind of the crime, even though they had no proof against him.

Finally, after six months of imprisonment they made a case and the court sentenced him to three years of imprisonment.

On the recommendation of our lawyer we appealed against the sentence . This angered the judge who said because we questioned his judgment, he increased the sentence from three years to nine years.

We fought the case and took it to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch but the Saudi government didn’t listen to anybody.

They even involved our business — ‘Asia International School’, which had 1,500 students and which we had been running for the last 12 years.

After four-and-a-half years Prince Sultan announced the pardon and release of all prisoners had committeed non-violent crimes, and had completed half of their original sentence. But the jailor said the case regarding the money had not even started. Since then for the last two years we have been waiting for them to start the case. We don’t know when they will start it.

Then they cancelled our residence visa which we had for more than 30 years and threw us out of Saudi Arabia. By chance we had arranged our visa for Baharain and have shifted there.

Two years ago we contacted the ambassador of Pakistan, Omar Khan Ali Sherzai, and informed him of the case regarding my son. He tried to help us and even took the case to Prince Naif, who later passed away.

After which the ambassador took the case to Prince Mohammad, the Governor of the Eastern Region, who also promised to resolve the case.

But unfortunately Ambassador Sherzai got retired and the new ambassador has refused to take any interest in our case.

My son has been in prison for more than six years, though his original sentence was for three years only and his extended sentence of nine years has already been pardoned after four-and-a-half years, he continues to be in jail on grounds that the other case regarding money has yet to start.

SYED HUMMAYUN MUZAFFAR Bahrain