Congress must win over the Saudi women who are imprisoned in their country

WASHINGTON - The time has come for Congress to move to impose sanctions on those involved in the arrest and torture of human rights activists in Saudi Arabia under the Magnetsky Act and the administration's reluctance to act, the Washington Post editorial board said.

The Washington Post called on Congress to link any economic and military cooperation with the kingdom to the release of those activists, stressing that America should not ally itself with any system that peacefully imprisoned women and tortured women.

At the beginning of the editorial, the newspaper focused on a woman's rights activist in Saudi Arabia and a writer known to the western circles of Hattoun al-Fassi. She said that since June 2018 she had been arrested in more than 10 other activists in the midst of "an unjustified and unjustified crackdown by the Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman, "according to the newspaper.

At least nine activists remained in prison, noting that many of them had been held in solitary confinement for long periods during which they had been subjected to brutal torture, as well as in the local media, although none had been convicted of any crime.

The newspaper quoted several human rights organizations as saying that among the types of torture inflicted on these women were beatings, drowning, electric shocks and even sexual assault.

Saoud al-Qahtani, a senior aide to Mohammed bin Salman, himself oversaw the ill-treatment of the prisoner, Eugene al-Hathul, and even threatened her with rape and murder, according to her family.

As for the international reaction to these abuses, the newspaper highlighted the Canadian position, as Saudi Arabia expelled the Canadian ambassador in Riyadh and recalled its ambassador from Canada following the Ottawa statement expressed concern over the arrest of Saudi activists Samar Badawi and Naseema Al-Sada.

The paper implicitly denounced the position of the administration of US President Donald Trump, who was just looking to Canada and Saudi Arabia to overcome their differences without explicitly standing with Canada on this issue.

This is what prompted the newspaper to ask Congress to bypass Trump in this case by resorting to the Magnitsky law and requiring the release of women activists in exchange for continuing economic, military and political cooperation with Riyadh.