Jailed Christian In Saudi To Be Free Soon?

(Compass) – Four months after he was tortured and jailed for “spreading Christianity” in Saudi Arabia, Indian Christian Brian O’Connor received his first official prison visits this week. O’Connor, 36, was lured out of his home in Riyadh on March 25 and arrested by a group of Saudi muttawa (religious police), who beat him severely, claiming he was dealing in drugs, alcohol and the spread of Christianity. This week two representatives of O’Connor’s embassy visited him at Riyadh ’s Al-Hair Jail, followed the next day by an official representing the office of the governor of Riyadh . At the end of that interview, the man told O’Connor that within 10 to 15 days’ time, he would either be sent back to his job or deported to India . “I am confident that the Lord will turn this mess into a message and my test into a testimony,” O’Connor told a visitor last week. Although Saudi government officials claim to exercise “practical tolerance” toward non-Muslims who worship privately in their homes, in legal terms freedom of religion does not exist within the kingdom.