In 1983 Scott Nelson read a job advertisement in a trade journal for a position as a monitoring systems engineer at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Saudi hospital – which was run by the Saudi government – had contracted with a U.S. firm, the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), to help with its recruiting. Nelson contacted the HCA and expressed his interest in the job. In short order, he received an interview with the Saudi hospital. After he returned home to the United States from his interview, he was offered – and accepted – the job.

Soon after Nelson began his job in Saudi Arabia, he ran into trouble. He discovered a number of safety defects at the hospital and reported them to his superiors. They never fixed the problems. So Nelson informed a Saudi government commission of the defects. Apparently, this was out of bounds. Shortly after contacting the government commission, Nelson was told by his superiors to go to the hospital's security office. There he was arrested (without being told why), beaten, placed in a rat-infested jail, and forced to fight other prisoners for food. Not until days later did Saudi officials inform his wife that he was jailed. And even then, they never told her why he was jailed or when he would be released. All they told her was that they would release him only if she provided them with sexual favors.