Yet such outrages have attracted little condemnation from Western governments, including Britain. Relatives of the jailed have been told to keep quiet in favour of 'behind the scenes' diplomacy. It appears that the wider interests of Saudi oil and Saudi support in the war on terror are of greater importance than the rights of expats. As far as diplomacy is concerned, the vital task of supporting the Saudi government in the face of growing domestic unrest is the only thing that matters.
If Saudi Arabia is hit by revolution, then history will say that it started in a girls school. On 11 March at Girls Intermediate School No 31 in Mecca at just after 8am an accidental fire took hold. It quickly spread and the teenagers fled outside. But within minutes the religious police, or mutawwa'in, had also arrived. Incredibly, as some girls fled out of one gate the police forced them back in through another. Fourteen girls died in the blaze. Dozens more suffered horrific burns. Their mistake had been to flee the fire without first putting on their black robes and headscarves. Some were still in nightdresses. That was enough for the police effectively to condemn them to death. Some even beat rescue workers trying to save the children. 'Instead of extending a helping hand, they were using their hands to beat us,' one rescue worker said.
The deaths prompted an unprecedented wave of anti-government protest across the country that was hailed by some dissident elements as 'Saudi Arabia's Prague Spring'. Until now details of those protests have been kept secret. But The Observer has interviewed some of the marchers and seen photographs of the demonstrations. Thousands of people, the majority of them women, gathered in streets across the kingdom. Some women even cast off their veils.
The women were joined by a variety of groups, including reformists, pro-Palestinian demonstrators and those belonging to the minority Shia community. Protests swept across the Shia strongholds of the Eastern Province, including the towns of Safwa, Al Qarif, Sayhat and Al Awjam. From the coastal port of Jeddah in the west to the Gulf City of Dhahran in the east, people took to the streets.
The crackdown was brutal. Four days after the demonstrations, police made mass arrests. They picked up the ringleaders and beat female protesters. 'They attacked us with sticks and fired rubber bullets,' said a civil servant. 'They even beat women and the six-year-old child of my neighbour. They concentrated their attack on women.' In Jeddah police locked female students in their compounds and sealed off an area around the US Consulate in Dharan to prevent demonstrators gathering there.
Saudi Arabia is now being pulled violently in two directions. As King Fahd lies dying in a Swiss hospital, the government of the de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah, is being split apart as it seeks to hold a middle ground. In the wake of the fire, Abdullah removed the running of girls' schools from the hands of religious scholars and gave it to the Ministry of Education. It was a bold move and it prompted outrage from Islamists, including those of his main rivals, the conservatives Prince Naif and Prince Sultan. Abdullah's status with the powerful Islamic clerics is already at a record low following the demise of his peace proposals between Israel and Palestinians. He is seen as a sell-out. 'His credibility is completely destroyed,' said Saad al-Fagih, a leading London-based Saudi opposition figure.
Observers believe the Islamists are preparing to strike. There is already ample evidence that the extremists, headed by al-Qaeda, are gathering in strength. Just a few weeks ago the police made 13 arrests in a swoop on an al-Qaeda cell that had fired a surface-to-air missile at an American plane near Riyadh. Incredibly, they are the first Saudi arrests of terrorist suspects since the 11 September attacks. The cell included 11 Saudis and a further six Saudis were picked up later.
But if Prince Abdullah is moving against the extremists it may be too late. The terrorists are organised loosely in cells and are hard to infiltrate.
Many weapons, including more rockets, have been smuggled across the long and porous border with Yemen. Sympathy for al-Qaeda also extends far beyond the streets and into government.
There are concerns that some officials in the Interior Ministry run by Prince Naif are sympathetic to their aims. It is feared that the anti-Western bombing campaign has been sanctioned by Islamic factions in government plot ting to take power and break ties with the West. That, some observers say, is why the bombings have been blamed on Westerners. The real bombers have protection from some very high places.
For the expat Westerners, huddled in their compounds, the future looks bleak. Now many want out. 'Everyone I know keeps an extremely low profile just to keep out of the way of the authorities,' said Jean.
The next months will be crucial. As America and Britain lurch towards a war with Iraq, the importance of Saudi Arabia is going to increase. At the same time Saudi Arabia's internal conflicts will reach boiling point.
The death of Fahd could provide the trigger for a power struggle in the palaces of Riyadh which could ripple out and rock the whole world. Fahd was last week admitted to the Swiss hospital. Official Saudi sources quote the medical team as saying his condition is 'unstable'.
As the king's death grows closer by the day, the rift between hardline Princes Sultan and Naif and the moderate Prince Abdullah widens. The prize they are fighting for is the oil-rich Saudi state.
But the stakes are higher and the result will send shock waves around the world - whoever wins.