USA TODAY International Edition
Abduction highlights danger to dissidents
Saudi Arabia suspected in critic’s disappearance
LONDON – A member of a protestart group in Moscow is rendered temporarily unable to see, speak or walk – likely the result of nerve poison. A popular YouTube satirist from the Middle East is beaten on the streets of London. China’s most famous actress vanishes. So does the boss of the world’s largest international police organization. Grisly revelations that Saudi Arabia may have helped orchestrate a brazen plot to abduct and even murder Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident-journalist critical of the oil-rich kingdom, have highlighted anew the threats faced by reporters, activists, reform advocates, and all those who use their voices and platforms to fight discrimination, rights abuses and corruption while falling on the wrong side of government policy. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, the nation’s de facto ruler since 2017, has presided over the arrest of hundreds of activists, officials, writers, religious clerics and even opponents inside his own royal family as part of efforts to suppress dissent and consolidate power, according to Freedom House, a civil liberties group. The Saudi Arabian government strongly contests any allegations con-
This year alone, 27 journalists have been murdered in Brazil, the Central African Republic, India, Mexico, and even the European Union and the United States.
necting it to Khashoggi’s disappearance. He was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Khashoggi, a U.S. resident, was there that day to get a document that would allow him to wed his Turkish fiancee. Officials in Turkey say they have persuasive audio and video evidence suggesting Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered. U.S. intelligence officials also previously intercepted communications indicating the Saudis had discussed a plan to capture Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia. The investigation is still unfolding. Yet, whatever it may ultimately yield, it’s clear that Saudi Arabia has a longstanding record of repressing peaceful dissidents. In May, it detained, without charge, 12 women’s rights activists, including the “right-to-drive” campaigner Loujain al-Hathloul, just weeks before the monarchy officially ended a ban on female drivers. Prior to that, in 2014, in an incident that has some potential eerie parallels to the Khashoggi incident, al-Hathloul had been “rendered” by the Saudis – to Riyadh from Abu Dhabi – for once attempting to drive a car inside the kingdom. “If Prince Muhammad bin Salman wants to reform Saudi Arabia, the best reform would be to release all our political prisoners,” said Ensaf Haidar, the wife of Raif Badawi, a writer and social activist jailed in Saudi Arabia after falling afoul of religious authorities. Badawi was arrested in Jeddah in 2012 for “insulting Islam through electronic channels.” He was a blogger and, according to his wife, a humanitarian and free thinker. In 2013, he was convicted of several charges, including apostasy, and sentenced to seven years and 600 lashes, a form of punishment with a whip or stick that the United Nations calls cruel and inhumane. A year later, the prison term was increased to 10 years and 1,000 lashes. Last year, Lebanon’s president accused Saudi Arabia of holding captive its former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his family as part of an attempt to force him to resign. The Saudis were reportedly unhappy with Lebanon’s support for Iran, a bitter Saudi rival, and its allies such as Hezbollah. Saudi Arabia disputed the allegation. Saudi Arabia is not alone. Harassment, intimidation, arbitrary detention, violence and even state-sponsored murder are fairly routine tactics used by authoritarian and illiberal governments to crush dissent. This year alone, 27 journalists have been murdered in Brazil, the Central African Republic, India, Mexico, and even the European Union and the United States, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Over the past 26 years, 848 have been killed.