Saudis Escalate Crackdown on Dissent, Arresting Nine and Risking U.S. Ire

Brushing back pressure from Washington, Mohammed bin Salman escalated his crackdown on even the mildest forms of dissent with the arrests this week of at least nine intellectuals, journalists, activists and their family members, according to rights groups and a Saudi associate of the detainees.

Ariana News Agency- 

Among those held are two dual Saudi-American citizens and two women — one of them pregnant, the groups said. Many of the detainees are suspected of having complained to Western journalists and rights groups about the treatment of imprisoned women’s activists, according to a Saudi national briefed on the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss confidential information.

The arrests come as Prince Mohammed, the 33-year-old de facto ruler of the kingdom, is under intense scrutiny over the killing last fall of the dissident Jamal Khashoggi, a Virginia resident and Washington Post columnist who was ambushed and dismembered by Saudi agents in Istanbul. American intelligence agencies have concluded that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing.
The most recent arrests — the first high-profile detentions since Mr. Khashoggi’s killing — suggest that the crown prince intends to continue his crackdown regardless of American admonitions.

“By targeting them, they are signaling to their entire people that there will be zero tolerance of any form of criticism, let alone questioning, of the state’s authoritarian practices,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s director of research for the Middle East.

One of the dual American citizens detained, Salah al-Haider, is the son of a prominent activist temporarily freed last week, Aziza al-Yousef. He had celebrated his mother’s return by posting photos of her on Twitter. The other is Bader el-Ibrahim, a Shiite author and physician who may have attracted the authorities’ attention because he has written about Shiites in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom’s population is mostly Sunni, and Shiites are often subject to discrimination.

Their names were confirmed by ALQST, a rights group based in London that has worked on behalf of the activists, and by a Saudi associate of the detainees who insisted on anonymity out of safety fears.

Three of the activists, including Ms. al-Yousef, were granted temporary release last week, leading some observers to speculate that the international pressure on Saudi Arabia to improve its rights record was working. But the charges against them have not been dropped.

Yahya Assiri, the director of ALQST, said he did not know what to make of the latest roundup, coming so soon after the authorities had allowed three of the women to go home.

Among them was Ayman al-Drees, the husband of a Saudi feminist activist, Malak al-Shehri, who had fled to the United States last year after the other women’s activists had been arrested.

Also among the recent detainees, according to Prisoners of Conscience, another rights group, was Yazed al-Faife, a journalist for a state-owned newspaper, Al Sharq. He had recently appeared in a video accusing Saudi officials of habitually neglecting parts of southern Saudi Arabia and suggesting that some official dealings had been corrupt.

The latest detainees also include a couple, Thumar al-Marzouqi and Khadija al-Harbi, both writers. Ms. al-Harbi, who often writes on feminist themes, is pregnant, Mr. Assiri said. Others arrested included Mohammed al-Sadiq, a writer; Fahad Abalkhail, who has supported giving women the right to drive; and Abdullah al-Duhailan, a journalist, novelist and advocate for Palestinian rights.

A 10th person, Anas al-Mazrou, a lecturer in literature at King Saud University, is believed to have been detained last month. The Saudi with knowledge of the case said the arrest was related to Mr. al-Mazrou’s appearance on a human rights panel in Riyadh, where he mentioned the imprisoned women’s rights activists.