"Foreign governments should be pushing the Saudi government to move quickly on a written penal code that, among other things, protects the exercise of human rights. They should also take advantage of the October 2007 amendments to the Judiciary Law to offer technical assistance in developing a judiciary trained in modern principles of criminal law. This assistance should include measures to strengthen the office of the inspector of the judiciary and the appeals court judges to ensure that lower court proceedings are conducted in compliance with the law and disciplinary action is taken where necessary. That means stopping trials or overturning verdicts where fundamental due process has been violated.
Foreign governments should also push for strong mechanisms of transparency for the criminal justice system. In particular, support for the creation of professional associations for criminal defense lawyers and the creation of free legal aid programs for all juvenile, poor and capital defendants would go a long way toward increasing transparency in trials and removing the stigma of criminal defense. "