Saudi dissident has been threatened in Canada
EDMONTON • A Saudi dissident living in Canada said he has been informed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that there have been threats against him made by Saudi Arabia — but that won’t stop his popular Youtube broadcasts.
“Because of the fear of the threats I am facing, I decided to stop doing the weekly broadcasts,” Omar Abdulaziz wrote on Twitter. “So it will be a daily broadcast, God willing.”
The news comes just weeks after the National Post reported the children of another exiled Saudi, Saad Aljabri, a former intelligence official, had been apparently abducted in Saudi, an attempt, his family believes, to force Aljabri to return to the kingdom.
Aljabri has been living in Canada since 2017
In recent years, other Saudi refugees and dissidents have also made their way to Canada.
After fleeing her family while on vacation in Kuwait in 2019, Rahaf Mohammed, who was then 18 years old, was held up in Bangkok, Thailand, before being granted asylum in Canada. Mohammed said she’d been abused by her family, and was one of the “lucky ones” in managing to escape.
In 2019, 312 Saudis applied for asylum in Canada, and 282 had their claims granted.
The top countries of origin for asylum seekers in 2019 were Iran, with 2,744 accepted claims and Turkey, with 2,043 accepted claims.
Thomas Juneau, a professor in the faculty of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, said while Canada is a haven sought by Saudi dissidents, they’re found all around the world.
“It’s important not to overstate it. It’s a destination, it’s not the destination,” Juneau said.
Abdulaziz, 29, has been in Canada since he came as a university student in 2009. In 2014, he claimed asylum after his scholarship to study in Canada was revoked. Over the years, there have been various pressure campaigns mounted against him — and against friends and family back home — to stop his criticisms of the Saudi government.
In a report in Vanity Fair in September 2019, Abdulaziz said two Saudi representatives, accompanied by Abdulaziz’s brother, came to Montreal. “They encouraged him to stop his activism and return home, urging him to visit the Saudi Embassy to renew his passport,” the Vanity Fair story says.
Abdulaziz rejected the offer. His understanding, Vanity Fair reported, was that his brother was jailed after that.
While pressure by the regime against dissidents abroad isn’t especially unique, what’s unusual in this case is there appears to have been real and serious threats made, said Juneau.
Abdulaziz, who could not be reached for comment Monday, told The Guardian the kingdom wants “to do something” to him.
“But I don’t know whether it’s assassination, kidnapping, I don’t know — but something not OK, for sure.” His lawyer told The Guardian the warnings about the threats seemed more formal and urgent.
Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Ottawa did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2018, the University of Toronto’s Citizenlab, a research group on “digital threats to civil society and high-level policy engagement,” published a report detailing how Abdulaziz, who produces a Youtube show and is a vocal online critic of the Saudi regime, was being monitored through spyware on his iphone, a program called “Pegasus,” which is produced by the Israel-based cyber warfare firm NSO Group.
In a boilerplate statement, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said: “The promotion and protection of human rights, including the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, are an integral part of Canada’s foreign policy.”
The RCMP said they could not confirm an investigation, charges laid or the identities involved, because that would happen “only in the event that an investigation results in the laying of criminal charges.”
Saudi Arabia is known for aggressively pursuing dissidents at home — and abroad — with tactics including assassination, such as the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Canada’s relations with Saudi Arabia have been tense in recent years.
Then-foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland caused a diplomatic dust-up in 2018 by calling for the release from imprisonment of Samar Badawi and Raif Badawi, dissidents who have ties to Canada. In response, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador and accused Canada of “blatant interference in the Kingdom’s domestic affairs.”
Juneau described the threats against Abdulaziz as another example of the issues making it difficult for relations to improve.
“The issue of Saudi pressure on dissidents and opponents is one sore point, it absolutely is, but it’s important to remember there are other issues around that.”