Body of Pakistani transvestite 'tortured in Saudi Arabia' handed to heirs

Muhammad Amin’s death certificate says he died of cardiac arrest

PESHAWAR: The body of the transvestite who allegedly died in police custody in the Saudi capital has been handed over to his heirs in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat district. A casket carrying the remains of Muhammad Amin was earlier flown from Riyadh to Islamabad.

Amin, who hailed from Bari Kot area of Swat, was one of the many people taken into custody by Saudi Arabia’s religious police during a raid on a private house party in Riyadh on Feb 26.

Media reports earlier described Amin as a transgender person who died after being subjected to torture. Saudi authorities, however,   vehemently denied the reports and insisted the both the raid and  torture of Amin and other prisoners.



The death certificate attached with the coffin said the cause of Amin’s death was cardiac arrest. Issued by the Saudi health ministry, the certificate – available with The Express Tribune – identified him as a male.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Amin’s son Sher Zaman said his father who a transvestite and not a transgender person. “We had requested the Saudi authorities to release my father as soon as possible as he wasn’t among the transgender but a transvestite. However, he died while in custody and his body has been sent after keeping us waiting for weeks,” he said.

Zaman claimed that he had asked the Saudi authorities to let him travel to Riyadh to accompany his father’s coffin but the request was turned down.



He said the Saudi authorities were of the view that there was no need for any medical examination in Pakistan as they had already carried out an autopsy. “We have fixed the time for his funeral in our village. Otherwise we would like to know whether my father died due to torture or heart attack,” he said.

Zaman said the Saudi police had released some of the transgender persons it had arrested during the raid but five people were still imprisoned at Al Azizia police station in Riyadh, facing charges of transvestitism.

Meanwhile in a video message, the father of another transgender person , Nasir Khan alias Spogmay, has requested the Saudi authorities to release his son on humanitarian grounds.  Nasir was also taken into custody during the Feb 26 raid.

“We are in contact with our son, who is suffering from illness at Al Azizia police station. We fear that he might die of torture if his imprisonment continues,” said Nasir’s father Sardar Khan, a resident of Tarnab village of Charsadda district.

“We requested him many times to quit his habits but he ignored our appeals. Now we request the Foreign Office, Embassy of Pakistan in Saudi Arabia and ministries of interior and justice to release all those taken into custody on that day,” he added.