‘Detained Saudi activists face torture, sexual abuse’

DUBAI: Saudi activists, including women, detained in a government crackdown this year have faced sexual harassment and torture during interrogation, rights groups said on Tuesday.

The activists, held since May in Dhahban prison on the western Red Sea coast, have faced repeated electrocution and flogging, leaving some of them unable to stand or walk, Amnesty International said, citing three separate testimonies.

At least one activist was made to hang from a ceiling, Amnesty added.

In addition to the torture, at least three women activists also endured “forcible kissing and hugging”, Human Rights Watch said in a separate statement.

In addition to detaining the activists “simply for peacefully expressing their views, they are also subjecting them to horrendous physical suffering”, Amnesty’s Middle East research director Lynn Maalouf said.

There was no immediate reaction to the report from Saudi authorities.

More than a dozen activists were arrested in May – just before the historic lifting of a decadeslong ban on women drivers the following month.

Many of them were accused of undermining security and aiding enemies of the state.

Some were subsequently released, but those still detained include Aziza al-Yousef, a retired professor at Riyadh’s King Saud University, Amnesty said.

Loujain al-Hathloul – who was held in 2014 for more than 70 days for attempting to drive from neighbouring United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia – also remains in detention.

Following their arrest, statebacked newspapers published front-page pictures of some of the activists with the word “traitor” stamped across them in red.

Hatoon al-Fassi, a prominent women’s rights activist and academic, was detained just after the lifting of the driving ban, campaigners said.

The arrests were seen as a calculated move by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to placate clerics incensed by his modernisation drive, as well as to send a clear signal to activists that he alone is the arbiter of change.

Campaigners said many activists are being held without charge or legal representation. – AFP