Two U.S. Citizens Arrested in Saudi Arabia for Supporting Women’s Rights

Those detained, seven men and one woman, are not frontline activists but have expressed support for women’s rights and other reforms.

Ariana News Agency- 

Saudi Arabia has arrested eight people, including two dual U.S.-Saudi citizens, in an apparent crackdown on supporters of women activists whose trial has drawn Western condemnation, an associate and a rights group said on Friday.

The 11 women on trial had campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system. Their case has intensified criticism of Riyadh’s rights record, already in the spotlight after last year’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The U.S. nationals are journalist Salah al-Haidar, whose mother Aziza al-Yousef is among those on trial, and Bader al-Ibrahim, a doctor and author of a book about Shiite Muslim politics, the associate and London-based Saudi rights group ALQST said.
Those newly detained, seven men and one woman, are not frontline activists but have expressed support of women’s rights and other reforms. They were detained late on Wednesday and Thursday, according to ALQST and the associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Five other people close to the women have also been placed under a travel ban since February, they added.

The Saudi government communications office and the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A Riyadh court last week temporarily released three of the women on trial, including Yousef, raising hopes of a more lenient handling after months of lobbying by Western governments.
But the new arrests could signal that the authorities will resist international pressure and pursue harsh sentences.

Khashoggi’s murder tarnished the reputation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who courted Western support for his efforts to modernize Saudi Arabia. The CIA and some Western countries believe he ordered the killing, which Saudi officials deny.

Dozens of other activists, intellectuals and clerics have been arrested separately in the past two years in an apparent bid to stamp out opposition.