One major area of concern for the State Department is the “arbitrary” detention and disappearances of Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Salman and his father.
ZACHARY KEYSER
The US State Department released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, and within it raised concerns over a number of areas in which it believes Saudi Arabia is guilty of abusing human rights within its sovereign borders.
One of the main points of contention – aside from restrictions on freedom of speech, press, access of information and freedom of religion – the US has been more focused on the political crackdown that has been underway within the royal family since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) came into prominence in 2017.
One major area of concern for the State Department is the “arbitrary” detention and disappearances of Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Salman and his father.
The prince was detained in 2018, along with 11 other princes after they allegedly staged a sit-in at a royal palace in Riyadh “to demand the state continue to pay their electricity and water bills,” the report said.
According to AFP, the prince and his father have never been interrogated, charged or put on trial, over the course of the two-and-a-half years they have been detained.
Without saying so outright, the US is pointing to instances where MBS has tried to seize power through internal politics within the royal family, and sudden disappearances of many of his competitors.
“In early March authorities reportedly detained four senior princes: Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, King Salman’s full brother; his son, Prince Nayef bin Ahmed, a former head of army intelligence; Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, former crown prince and interior minister; and his younger brother, Prince Nawaf bin Nayef,” the report said.
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The report noted that the detentions were not announced to the public by the government.
A regional source said that MBS “accused them of conducting contacts with foreign powers, including the Americans and others, to carry out a coup d’état,” at the time.
“With these arrests, MbS consolidated his full grip on power. It’s over with this purge,” the source added, indicating that no rivals remain to challenge his succession to the throne.
Within the same span of time, Saudi forces also detained dozens of “Interior Ministry officials, senior army officers, and others suspected of supporting the alleged coup attempt,” according to the report.
While Prince Nayef has been released, there has been no word on the whereabouts of the other three.
MBS, King Salman’s son and de facto ruler of the country, the world’s top oil exporter and a key US ally, moved to consolidate power since ousting Mohammed bin Nayef as heir to the throne in the 2017 palace coup.
Later that year, he arrested several royals and other prominent Saudis, holding them for months at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel in an anti-corruption campaign that caused shockwaves at home and abroad.
MBS has also fueled resentment among some prominent branches of the ruling family by tightening his grip on power. Some critics have questioned his ability to lead after the 2018 murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents and the largest-ever attack on Saudi oil infrastructure, sources have said.
They said royals seeking to change the line of succession view Prince Ahmed, King Salman’s only surviving full brother, as a possible choice who would have support of family members, the security apparatus, and some Western powers. Prince Ahmed’s whereabouts, as aforementioned, are unknown at the time.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Content retrieved from: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/us-state-dept-details-saudi-arabia-human-rights-abuses-in-report-663677.