A year after landing in jail without charge, her mercy plea unanswered by Saudi Arabian rulers and in fear of a COVID-19 outbreak behind bars, a prominent princess did the unthinkable — and went public.
Saudi Princess Basmah bint Saud, a 56-year-old royal family member long seen as a proponent of women’s rights and a constitutional monarchy, mysteriously disappeared from public life in March last year.
Last month, her Twitter account sprang to life with a letter from the princess saying that she had been “abducted” and “thrown into prison” along with her 28-year-old daughter, Suhoud al-Sharif, and imploring Saudi King Salman and his powerful son Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman for help.
Photo: AFP
The letter, a rare public appeal from a member of the secretive royal family, voiced fears that her “deteriorating health” in Riyadh’s high-security Al-Ha’ir Prison — known for holding terrorism convicts and political prisoners — could result in her death.
Just hours later, those tweets were deleted.
Two sources close to her family said that the account had been briefly hacked “by someone in Saudi Arabia.”
“Since the tweets, there is no more contact; no signs of the princess or Suhoud,” one of the sources said. “No more phone calls, nothing.”
The family’s fears have been further amplified by concerns over a possible outbreak of the novel coronavirus inside Al-Ha’ir.
Allowed one weekly telephone call before the tweets, Suhoud told her family that prison authorities had sounded the alarm that coronavirus cases had been detected inside the facility.
A prison employee separately confirmed to the family that there were a handful of COVID-19 cases in Al-Ha’ir, the sources said.
Authorities in Saudi Arabia, which has reported more than 28,000 COVID-19 infections so far, did not respond to a request for comment.
The government has said nothing publicly about the princess’ detention.
The case, which spotlights what observers call increasing repression under de facto ruler Prince Mohammad.
The youngest child of late King Saud bin Abdulaziz, Princess Basmah was preparing to travel to Switzerland on a private jet in March last year for medical treatment when a group of men claiming to work for the king showed up at her Jeddah penthouse.
They said that they were there to escort her for a private meeting with the monarch, the sources said.
Unwilling to let her mother go alone, Suhoud accompanied her.
They were taken straight to Al-Ha’ir.
In written testimony to the UN, seen by reporters, the family said that Princess Basmah’s detention was likely due to her “record as an outspoken critic of abuses in our country,” as well as her inquiries about a fortune belonging to King Saud that is frozen by the state.
They fear the arbitrary detention without any criminal charges is an attempt to “get rid of the princess,” the document said.
She was also deemed an ally of former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was replaced as heir to the throne by Prince Mohammad in 2017, the written testimony added.
Prince Nayef and Prince Ahmed — the king’s brother — were detained in a separate royal purge in March.
A beauty queen who pulled out of the Miss South Africa competition when her nationality was questioned has said she wants to relocate to Nigeria, after coming second in the Miss Universe pageant while representing the West African country. Chidimma Adetshina, whose father is Nigerian, was crowned Miss Universe Africa and Oceania and was runner-up to Denmark’s Victoria Kjar Theilvig in Mexico on Saturday night. The 23-year-old law student withdrew from the Miss South Africa competition in August, saying that she needed to protect herself and her family after the government alleged that her mother had stolen the identity of a South
BELT-TIGHTENING: Chinese investments in Cambodia are projected to drop to US$35 million in 2026 from more than US$420 million in 2021 At a ceremony in August, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet knelt to receive blessings from saffron-robed monks as fireworks and balloons heralded the breaking of ground for a canal he hoped would transform his country’s economic fortunes. Addressing hundreds of people waving the Cambodian flag, Hun Manet said China would contribute 49 percent to the funding of the Funan Techo Canal that would link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand and reduce Cambodia’s shipping reliance on Vietnam. Cambodia’s government estimates the strategic, if contentious, infrastructure project would cost US$1.7 billion, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s annual GDP. However, months later,
‘HARD-HEADED’: Some people did not evacuate to protect their property or because they were skeptical of the warnings, a disaster agency official said Typhoon Man-yi yesterday slammed into the Philippines’ most populous island, with the national weather service warning of flooding, landslides and huge waves as the storm sweeps across the archipelago nation. Man-yi was still packing maximum sustained winds of 185kph after making its first landfall late on Saturday on lightly populated Catanduanes island. More than 1.2 million people fled their homes ahead of Man-yi as the weather forecaster warned of a “life-threatening” effect from the powerful storm, which follows an unusual streak of violent weather. Man-yi uprooted trees, brought down power lines and smashed flimsy houses to pieces after hitting Catanduanes in the typhoon-prone
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter US-led threats in comments reported yesterday that were his first direct criticism toward Washington since US president-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory on Oct. 6. At a conference with army officials on Friday, Kim condemned the US for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea and solidifying three-way military cooperation involving Japan, which he portrayed as an “Asian NATO” that was escalating tensions and instability in the region. Kim also criticized the US over its support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion.
RSS