Two gay Saudi journalists 'treated like criminals' in Australia after seeking asylum

Two Saudi journalists who fled the country after one was interrogated and threatened with their relationship being outed by authorities have been detained in Australia after seeking asylum.

The men, who arrived in Australia some weeks ago, have drawn stark similarities between their treatment in Saudi and their treatment in Australia. They allege they have been threatened with violence twice by other detainees while in the detention centre, intimidated by guards, and witnessed rampant drug use among detainees.

“We ran away from being detained arbitrarily and jailed for no reason, only to arrive in Australia and find ourselves here in jail,” Sultan* told the Guardian.

“We’ve been threatened with it in Saudi but it never actually happened until we came here.”

Sultan is a journalist and former employee with the ministry of media, and has assisted numerous foreign journalists in Saudi Arabia as a field producer, as well as defending the regime to international press.

Related: Saudi Arabia accuses Australia of racism in extraordinary UN broadside

However, he says the government began suspecting him of leaking negative material – something he strongly denies – and he was targeted and interrogated as the regime became increasingly suspicious of any contacts with journalists who might be critical of the regime.

In 2018 a foreign media crew obtained key documents related to the mistreatment and detention of journalists by the Saudi regime. The documents were smuggled out of the country, purportedly with the intention of passing them to the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was subsequently murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

No intention of being a dissident

Sultan and Nassar* lived a comfortable life of relative wealth and privilege in Riyadh. They shared a home but kept their relationship secret. Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia, and punishable by death.

The country is also notoriously harsh on journalists and dissent, although Sultan says he is not and has no intention of being a dissident.

“I loved my life in Saudi Arabia and I enjoyed helping the kingdom’s image abroad by ensuring that the foreign media portrayed the country fairly and accurately,” he said.

“But after being unfairly targeted by the ministry of media and the presidency of state security, I was left with no choice but to leave the kingdom and seek asylum elsewhere.”

Some months before Khashoggi’s murder, Sultan received a call to come into a prison on the outskirts of Riyadh.

“My phone was taken from me and they ran a body wand over me. Then they put me in a van without any windows. It was blacked out with some kind of heavy material so I couldn’t see out.”

He said he and three others were driven into the prison and he was taken to an interrogation room.

“The interrogator made it obvious he knew about me and Nassar … He said some secrets don’t have to remain secret,” Sultan said.

“He was telling me that if I didn’t stop working with the foreign media he would let it be known Nassar and I were a couple.”

Sultan kept working with foreign media. He said Nassar’s family then began pressuring him to find a wife, and Sultan was threatened by one of them. They returned home one day to find undercover police leaving their home.

Then both received separate calls to attend the criminal investigation division at Riyadh police department.

“That’s when we said, oh my God, Nassar’s family have actually started making the move on getting us separated,” Sultan said.

The couple drove nine hours from Riyadh to Jeddah and caught the first plane to Cairo, hoping to beat the inevitable police travel ban.

“It takes about 24 to 48 hours to generate a system block. For anyone who wants to escape, that’s how long you’ve got, that’s the golden hour.”

Related: Saudi Arabia: arrests of dissidents and torture allegations continue

Deciding on Australia as their destination, they took the long way from Cairo to avoid the Gulf states and arrived with one and two-year tourist visas.

They both cleared immigration, but were detained at the baggage claim, separated and questioned.

Sultan says their phones were taken and searched by Australian Border Force officers, and Sultan said they intended to seek asylum. Their visas were cancelled and they were handcuffed, put in a van “like criminals”, Sultan says, and driven at night to a detention centre.

No limit to detention

Under Australia’s convoluted immigration laws, because the pair had not yet cleared the airport they were ineligible for a type of visa that allowed them to stay in the community while their protection claims were processed. The department of immigration has applied to the minister to grant them bridging visas.

Australia currently holds thousands of people, including asylum seekers, in its immigration detention network, which has been beset by complaints of mistreatment, drug use and arbitrary or indefinite stays.

“There is no limit to the length of time these people can spend in detention,” the human rights lawyer Alison Battisson said.

Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

“It’s a very dangerous environment, in terms of their protection claims as well … I’ve had previous incidents with Saudi dissidents threatened with being outed to the Saudis here by other detainees.”

Sultan and Nassar were sent to various compounds, including one used to house ex-criminals facing deportation, where Sultan says their assigned roommates refused to let them in their rooms and so they slept on the stairs. A guard noticed, and Sultan had to come clean.

“I guess they went and talked to the [roommate], and from across the area he screamed ‘I’m going to kill you’ and ran his thumb across his neck. He saw Nassar looking at him, and said ‘why are you looking at me, do you want to get stabbed’.”

He claims they saw evidence of rampant drug deals and drug use, including detainees spiking the drink of another man with what looked like methamphetamine, and people with clear mental and physical illnesses which appeared untreated.

Related: The Instagram influencers hired to rehabilitate Saudi Arabia's image

The Australian Border Force said it had implemented a number of procedures, policies, and security upgrades “to minimise the risk of contraband items entering immigration detention facilities”, and conducted intelligence-led search operations.

After medical screenings picked up TB in both men, they were sent to hospital. Sultan notes this was something of a blessing but says it didn’t retroactively excuse their detention.

“There are hundreds and hundreds who are victims of the ABF (save for the illness, we would have considered ourselves victims) every year,” he said.

“Those are people who are not journalists, and do not speak English, nor do they have Alison as their lawyer, nor have the global media taking an interest in their cases.”

Weeks after doctors cleared Sultan the centre refuses to take him back, he said. He remains in hospital at an estimated cost of $4,000 a day, which Sultan has taken to tallying on a whiteboard by his bed in anger. Guards – a further cost – stand outside his room and he says he has not been allowed outside.

“We really, really, really just want to get out of here and get our bridging visas, and start working and paying taxes,” Sultan said.

The ABF said it didn’t comment on individual cases but detainees received hospital treatment when it was deemed necessary by medical professionals “and returned to immigration detention based on advice from medical professionals”.

Nassar was returned to detention last week, where another Saudi detainee was asking him questions about himand his case.

“I said please stay away from him. Saudi Arabia has people everywhere. We don’t know him, he might get in touch with the embassy,” Sultan said.

“I haven’t seen him since. We went through all this shit, we have been together for 16 years, we went through hell, we went through this shit from his family, flew around the world, were thrown into a cell together, and now we’re separated.”

The Department of Home Affairs, which oversees all immigration and detention policy, has been contacted for comment.

*Names have been changed