Displaced dissidents warned by Saudi Arabia about threats against them say they have been put in greater danger by the Biden government to drop direct sanctions against Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – even though US intelligence agencies have acknowledged that he was complicit in the murder. of Jamal Khashoggi.
The activists, including some who had been warned earlier that they might be at risk of being injured by kingdom agents, said in interviews with the Guardian that they believe the 35-year-old crown prince will be encouraged after the White House refused. to punish him.
“The Biden administration’s release of the ODNI report [into Jamal Khashoggi’s murder] transparency is welcomed, but the lack of direct liability will give MBS permanent impunity, which will make him more dangerous, ”said Khalid Aljabri, the son of a former senior Saudi official living in exile in Canada and whose siblings , Omar and Sarah, are being held in the kingdom.
“He probably thinks he can get away with future assassinations, as long as he does not leave fingerprints behind,” Aljabri said.
The view was shared by a number of Saudis and others seen by Prince Mohammed as enemies of the kingdom.
In Norway, pro-democracy activist İyad el-Baghdadi, a Palestinian critic of the crown prince living under asylum protection, was rushed to a safe place in April 2019 after a CIA tip that he posed a potential threat to Saudi Arabia in the facing. Arabia.
‘I’m actually less safe now than I used to be. The combined facts of [the US saying] “Yes, he did it” and “No, we can do nothing about it, but punishing some of his henchmen” is very dangerous. What normalizes this? El-Baghdadi said.
“I do not think it can be. People in the White House seem to be thinking about conventional foreign policy and that they need to wake up the fuck. They bring a knife to a shootout. ‘
Another high-profile dissident, Omar Abdulaziz, who was a close ally of Khashoggi and was warned by Canadian authorities last summer that he was a “potential target” of Saudi Arabia, said it was clear the crown prince ” can do what he wants “.
“No one is going to stop him, no one is going to punish him, they are going to call him a bad guy,” said Abdulaziz, who is Saudi, and whose family and friends have been imprisoned in the kingdom. “I try to be optimistic here, but justice is not served.”
He also noted with concern a recent report about a Saudi activist, Ahmed Alharby, based in Montreal, who sought asylum in Canada and was reportedly returned to the kingdom under mysterious circumstances after a visit to the Saudi consulate in Ottawa. According to the Toronto Star, a new Twitter account from Alharby has started posting positive messages about Saudi Arabia, in stark contrast to Alharby’s previous criticism.
Saudi officials in Canada did not respond to requests for comment.
In Washington, Saudi academic and activist Abdullah Alaoudh praised the government’s new ‘Khashoggi ban’, a policy that the State Department said gives it additional tools to protect journalists and dissidents, but said that Prince Mohammed nevertheless’ get off the hook ‘.
Under the policy, the department said it would now be allowed to restrict visa issuance to any individual who, on behalf of a foreign government, acts in ‘serious, extra-territorial anti-dissident activities’, including repression, harassment, surveillance and threats.
“This ban is intended to prevent foreign government agents from committing another heinous murder like Khashoggi around the world,” a State Department spokesman said. But the US government declined to comment on whether Prince Mohammed himself is one of the 76 Saudis placed on the visa ban list.
Alaoudh, whose father is a prominent Saudi reformer and scholar facing a death sentence in a Saudi prison, said the new policy was a ‘big problem’ but that it was not ‘accountable’. or justice ‘is not.
He pointed out that his colleague Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Dawn, a pro-reform group started by Khashoggi, tweeted in Arabic shortly after the government released the report as well as sanctions against some Saudi officials. about an oped the two co-wrote ‘MBS’, as he is known, a thorn in the side of the world and the Saudi people.
“It was read by tens of thousands of people, but the tweet received nearly 3,000 responses from Saudi clashes, with attacks and smears against her,” he said.
‘If the intention [of the administration] was to send a message to this man, well, the mission was not accomplished. “It is exactly the same environment, or worse, that led to the assassination of Khashoggi,” Alaoudh said.
Hala Aldosari, another Saudi dissident focused on women’s rights, said she was forced to cut ties and her work with women in Saudi Arabia because they were admitted to the home, and that they were investigating and torturing in faced because she was dealing with her. .
‘In the charges against [some women] activists, my name came up. “I was considered a hostile agent,” Aldosari said.
The Biden government has highlighted the case of prominent activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who was recently released from prison but still faces severe restrictions and a travel ban in Saudi Arabia, as a sign of progress. But Aldosari said there was no sign that the Saudi regime was changing course.
“I do not think the Saudi regime is fit to compromise. Since Mohammed bin Salman came to power, it has been about centralizing power and becoming the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. It’s not something you can solve by making a classified report transparent, ‘she said. “There should be a visa ban, and Mohammed bin Salman should ban assets.”
There are practical issues regarding the security measures that Aldosari is taking, such as avoiding Saudi embassies and consulates, which means she could not access a legacy from her father.
‘Of course I’m worried that I can not see my family, and that I can not contact them and talk to them freely. I always have the feeling that it can be influenced. And I think all the activists in diaspora have such problems and problems, so they can not actually be close to their own families, ‘she said.
Asked if she feels she can live with comfort now, given the support of the new government, she said “of course not”. Although she said she was grateful for Biden’s personal support for Loujain al-Hathloul – whose name he mentioned when she was released – she said it was important to remember that even this pressure did not affect Al-Hathloul’s freedom. or ability to return, certainly did not work as an activist.
“If it happens to someone whose name has been negotiated at the highest level, you can imagine what can happen to people like us,” she said.