The death of trans woman who died at a Riyadh police station must be investigated according to Human Rights Watch. Her name was Meeno.

Another five women who have been detained since February must also be released immediately.

In late February Saudi police raided a hall and arrested 35 Pakistani people who were there.

Pakistani trans activists said some of the those gathered at the hall, including the detainee who died in detention, were trans women.

‘Saudi Arabia’s aggressive policing of the private consensual activities of Saudis and foreigners diverts resources from actual problems such as preventing and solving crimes,’ said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.

‘Saudi Arabia should immediately end this nightmare for Pakistani families by credibly investigating why this woman died in police custody and releasing the other Pakistanis still in jail.’

A Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry told a meeting of the Pakistani Senate’s Human Rights Committee that Saudi authorities had arrested the 35 Pakistanis after monitoring them for two months. He confirmed that 29 of them were eventually released, while five remain in detention.

Her family claimed she was tortured to death in custody. Meeno’s son told the committee his family received her body on March 11.

‘When we opened the coffin, my father’s teeth and jaw were broken,’ he said.

‘Moreover, there were marks of wounds on the body.’

The Saudi denial

In a statement to Reuters, Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry denied the torture claims saying ‘[o]ne 61-year-old person suffered a heart attack and died in the hospital after being treated’.

The Saudi Health Ministry’s medical report said the body did not show ‘any signs of suspicious wounds.’

It also quotes a police memo from Aziziyya station, in southern Riyadh, stating that police detained the person on February 26, in a ‘morality case’. After the detainee complained of chest pains police for the person to go to hospital.

The Saudi Interior Ministry’s death certificate lists Meeno’s cause of death as ‘stopping of the heart and breathing’ on February 27.

But a briefing from Pakistani Senate’s Human Rights Committee says the transgender woman died on March 1. The Saudi-issued embalming certificate is dated March 9.

Saudi Arabia has no written laws concerning sexual orientation or gender identity. Judges use principles of uncodified Islamic law to sanction people. Illegal acts include committing sexual relations outside marriage, including adultery, extramarital and homosexual sex, or other ‘immoral’ acts.

Previous sentences for cases in which men were accused of wearing makeup or dressing in women’s clothes ranged from 20 days in prison to a year-and-a-half, and between 20 and 300 lashes.