Execution fear of gay Brit battered in Saudi

Stephen Comiskey

By NICK PARKER -

A BRITISH male nurse was arrested and savagely battered in Saudi Arabia for being gay - then warned he faced death by BEHEADING.

Religious cops lured Stephen Comiskey, 36, into an ambush by sending him texts posing as a friend of his.
They beat him up, flung him in a cell and told him he faced charges of homosexuality - a capital offence under the Muslim kingdom's Sharia law.
Stephen was throttled into signing a "confession" in Arabic he could not read before being released.

His passport was confiscated and he spent the next SIX MONTHS in limbo - terrified he would be dragged off and executed. He was finally allowed to fly home this week after diplomatic talks.
Stephen, who was nearing the end of a contract at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital in Riyadh, insists he never flaunted his sexuality.
He said: "You have to understand Sharia law to know what I've been through. I've learned that you don't mess with these people - you cannot offend their culture or their law."
The Sun has known of Stephen's plight for six months but agreed to a news blackout until he returned.

Jailed ... Prince Saud

The nurse, of Airdrie, Lanarkshire, says he never broke the law in the super-strict state where, in January 2002, three gay men were reported to have been beheaded for "ugly acts of homosexuality".

Diplomats believe his arrest was linked to the case of gay Saudi Prince Saud Abdulaziz bin Nasser al Saud, 34.
He was jailed for life last year for killing his servant Bandar Abdulaziz in a London hotel.
Saudi authorities are understood to have lobbied for the prince's homosexuality to be kept secret at his trial to avoid embarrassment at home.
But British legal chiefs refused, saying his sexuality was key to the case. Foreign Office chiefs fear Stephen was targeted in a tit-for-tat revenge.
A Saudi-based hospital source added: "Stephen's been through hell. His treatment was medieval."
The Foreign Office confirmed yesterday it had assisted a British man arrested in Saudi for breaching homosexuality laws last October.

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