Fears rise over safety of detained Saudi princess, family confidant says
Relatives of a Saudi princess, a women’s rights advocate,
who says she is imprisoned in the Gulf kingdom are concerned for her health
after contact was cut with her two months ago, a source close to the family has
said.
Princess Basmah Bint Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 56, a
businesswoman and a granddaughter of the country’s founding king, Abdul Aziz
Ibn Saud, was taken from her home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in March last year
and imprisoned along with her daughter, Souhoud Al-Sharif, 28, the family
confidant told NBC News.
“[If] she’s dead or alive we have no idea, we literally have
no single clue,” the person said, on the condition of anonymity because of
fears for personal safety.
NBC News could not independently confirm the circumstances
of Basmah’s disappearance or her detention. Saudi Arabian authorities did not
respond to a request for comment.
In the past, Basmah has spoken about her commitment to
promoting women’s entrepreneurship and leadership in the Arab world. But now,
the confidant believes, Basmah being an outspoken woman in a prominent
position, along with asking for her inheritance, may be among the reasons she
is imprisoned.
In recent years, the kingdom has worked to improve its image
abroad and attract foreign investment, a campaign that was hurt badly by the
gruesome murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, for which a
United Nations investigation found senior Saudi figures could be liable.
Over the past year, Basmah has had limited but regular
contact with relatives through visits and phone calls but it was not revealed
publicly what happened to her until April, the confidant said.
In April, more than a year after the princess’ detention, a
verified account owned by her issued a series of tweets — which were deleted
before being later reposted — imploring King Salman and powerful Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman to release her from Al-Hayer prison outside Riyadh.
The tweets, published by members of her team to draw
attention to what had happened, said she was being held without charge and that
her health was deteriorating.
In the days before those tweets, the princess had been too
unwell to speak to her family on the phone, the confidant said, and all contact
had been limited to her daughter, who is still also detained with her mother,
it is claimed.
“She was in a very bad condition ... she couldn’t get out of
bed,” the confidant said, adding that she was struggling to eat.
But then in mid-April, after the first tweets, contact with
the daughter also ended, the source said. With no contact, the source said
those close to the princess were increasingly concerned she could be seriously
ill in jail.
Since being imprisoned last year, she has been denied
regular access to a doctor but has been hospitalized on several occasions,
according to the confidant.
The specifics of Basmah’s illness remain unclear. The person
close to the family said the princess had part of her colon removed in a past
operation.
The circumstances around her detention are also murky.
The princess had been due to travel abroad for medical
treatment around the time of her arrest and was accused of trying to forge a
passport, the source said, adding the charges were later dropped, but she still
remains in prison.
Because Saudi authorities did not respond to a request for
comment, NBC News has not been able to verify the status of any potential
charges.
For months, Basmah was repeatedly told that she would be let
out “next week,” the source added, but each week passed with no release.
It is not the first time that members of Saudi Arabia’s
extensive royal family have been detained since the crown prince’s rise to
power. In November 2017, hundreds of Saudi royals, billionaires and senior
government officials were detained at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, where they
were told they had to sign away large chunks of their assets to be released.
It has even been alleged by U.S. officials that the crown
prince once put his own mother under house arrest.
"In today's Saudi Arabia, no one is safe from the state
repression apparatus, even royal family members who fall out of line,” said
Adam Coogle, a deputy director with the Middle East and North Africa division
at advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
“The Saudi leadership has spent a lot of money and effort to
market itself internationally as reformist, but this is quickly undermined by
the continued arrests of dissidents and flagrant violations of due process of
law."
Comments
Post a Comment