Amanuel wakes up each day not knowing if it will be his last. A rap at his cell door could mean his time is up; no farewell call, no last meal. Executions in Saudi Arabia often arrive without warning.
“I’m a dead man walking,” he says. “After my friends were executed, I don’t eat food, I don’t drink water.”
Amanuel is a pseudonym for one young prisoner who’s been imprisoned for several years. CNN obtained his account from inside Khamis Mushait prison, in the southwest of Saudi Arabia. CNN is not naming him for his own protection.
He is among around 60 Ethiopians sentenced to death on drug-related charges in one cell alone at Khamis Mushait, according to rights groups, with more held in other cells there.
“These are not isolated cases,” said Maya Foa, chief executive of human rights group Reprieve. “There is a clear pattern of Saudi authorities targeting vulnerable migrants. Often, their true ‘crime’ appears to have been crossing the border, in search of a better life.”
CNN has also heard from relatives of three other men held on death row in Saudi Arabia on similar charges. All said they had learned of the arrests only weeks after sentencing, through word of mouth or community contacts, not from Ethiopian or Saudi officials.
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