ARAR — A Saudi woman who was held captive in Syria has escaped with her Syrian husband and children from the restive country.
Malika Suwaid Al-Hizaimi said her father is Saudi but her mother is Syrian.
"My father had passed away years ago which forced me to go to live with my sick mother in Al-Qamshly region of Syria. There, I got married to my cousin Ahmad Mohammad. I had my son Yousef and daughter Fatima with him," said Al-Hizaimi.
She said she used to travel between Syria and Saudi Arabia regularly to visit her brothers and family in Saudi Arabia.
"When the uprising in Syria began, the Assad regime arrested me claiming that I was a terrorist because I have a Saudi passport. I was imprisoned in Syria. They took me to three different prisons. I don't know where these places were," said Al-Hizaimi.
She said she was held three stories underground.
"I had no idea where I was. I was with a group of women but I was the only Saudi there. I was tortured. I was hung by my hand and legs and I was lashed with a whip and an electric rod. They were forcing me to confess that I was a terrorist. They wanted me to confess that I was sent to Syria by an enemy organization," said Al-Hizaimi.
Mohammad said he reached out to their aunt in Saudi Arabia and she transferred them some money.
"I bribed the police officers and the judges 20 million Syrian pounds in the hope that they would free my wife from prison. She was released and her crime changed from being a terrorist to violator of the law. She was imprisoned for more than a month and a half. Then she left Syria through the Lebanese border," said Mohammad.
He said he had to pay large sums of money to issue Syrian passports for him and his children and to renew the passport of his mother in-law.
"My mother in-law had to get on a military plane for refugees and come to Damascus. The plane had no seats. Everyone on it was standing for an hour and a half. My mother in-law was in a wheelchair. We renewed our passports. The only way we could get to Saudi Arabia was through Lebanon," said Mohammad.
He added he was turned back from the Syrian-Lebanese border but the Saudi Embassy in Beirut gave them visas to enter Saudi Arabia.
"We got to Beirut and we were received by the Saudi Embassy. The embassy booked us a flight to Riyadh immediately and the Crown Prince gave us a permanent residency in Saudi Arabia. Things in Syria are horrific. Everyone is fleeing the country. Many of them end up dying on the way," said Mohammad.
He said he found Saudi Arabia to be very safe and welcoming as he never truly had a good night's sleep until he arrived in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Hizaimi added that she would be ever grateful for Crown Prince Prince Mohammad Bin Naif's humanitarian gesture that brought her husband, mother and children back to her.
"I live with my aunt in Arar. It is a small house. She has nine sons and daughters. I hope that my mother would recover and would be able to travel to Makkah to perform Umrah," said Al-Hizaimi.
