A complaint will be lodged with the UN on Tuesday by two human rights groups concerning the "arbitrary" detention in his country of a Saudi philanthropist prince, according to a document consulted by AFP.
In January 2018, Salman ben Abdel Aziz, now 37, was arrested with his father. An arrest that raises questions, this second-rank prince posing no threat to the heir to the throne Mohammed ben Salman (MBS).
Arbitrary detention according to organizations
Prince Salmane, who studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, was detained for about a year in the high security prison of Al-Hai'r, near Riyadh, then in a villa in the capital, according to his relatives. He was transferred to another place of detention before being brought back two months later to the villa in Riyadh after an American lobbying campaign and calls for European elected officials to release him.
Seeking to amplify the pressure, the London-based ALQST and the Geneva-based MENA Rights Group intend to file a joint complaint on Tuesday to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva in about his imprisonment. "Prince Salman and his father have been detained for over two and a half years without any charge," said Ines Osman, director of the MENA Rights Group, adding that "their detention has no legal basis".
A "dirty political coup"
The UN task force is expected to issue an "opinion" in the coming months, but the Saudi government is not legally obligated to respond. Salman ben Abdel Aziz is one of eleven princes detained after he organized what the attorney general of Saudi Arabia called a sit-in at a royal palace in Riyadh to demand that the state continue to pay their electricity bills and d 'water. The princes "refused to leave" and were locked in Al-Hai'r prison for "disturbing peace and order," the attorney general said at the time.
But a relative of Prince Salman disputed this version of events, seeing it as a "dirty political blow" and saying that the rich prince would not care about small expenses of public services. According to the ALQST, founded by former Saudi Air Force officer Yahya Assiri, "some of those present were accused of participating in meetings and pacts aimed at deposing the crown prince, and of sharing these ideas with people abroad in the hope that they would help them ”.
A campaign of repression of the Saudi power
Prince Salman's father was arrested at his home the day after his son was arrested for “telephoning people in Europe”, including a lawyer based in Paris, according to the ALQST. For observers, what may have irritated the royal court is a meeting of Prince Salman with the influential Democratic member of Congress Adam Schiff just before the US elections of 2016. The latter is a critic of US President Donald Trump, himself a fervent supporter of the Saudi Crown Prince.
Partners of Prince Salman, known for his philanthropic activities, say “nothing political” was discussed at the meeting. Several European elected officials intervened with Riyadh, one of them imploring the crown prince to release Prince Salman, in a letter. The arrest of Prince Salman ben Abdel Aziz and his father was part of a campaign of repression led by the crown prince who not only targeted potential rivals but also personalities who did not a priori threaten his power.
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