Saudi Arabia is said to have tortured a U.S. citizen
A dual citizen of Saudi Arabia and the United States had been imprisoned in the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh for about a week when he heard a knock on his door.
Guards dragged Walid Fitaihi, a Harvard-trained physician, to another room, according to a friend who took down the prisoner’s detailed account of his treatment. Dr. Fitaihi told the friend he was slapped, blindfolded, stripped to his underwear and bound to a chair. He was shocked with electricity in what appears to have been a single session of torture that lasted about an hour.
His tormentors whipped his back so severely that he could not sleep on it for days, his friend said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals. The doctor had described the physical abuse, in general terms, to his relatives as well, a person close to them said.
Detained in November 2017 in what was billed as a crackdown on corruption, Dr. Fitaihi, 54, remains imprisoned without any public charges or trial. About 200 prominent Saudis were detained with him, and he is one of dozens who remain in prison.
Friends and families of others detained have also described episodes of torture. At least 17 detainees were hospitalized soon after the crackdown for injuries sustained while in custody, according to a doctor at the hospital and an American official monitoring the crackdown.
A military officer who had been detained died with a twisted neck and other signs of abuse on his body, according to a person who saw it. Women’s rights advocates jailed in Saudi Arabia have said they were also tortured, including by electrical shocks, according to their relatives and rights groups.
The office of Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said late Friday that it had completed its investigation into a group of women’s rights activists accused of working to “undermine the security” of the kingdom and was preparing to put them on trial.
Human rights groups have criticized the treatment of the activists, who were arrested last spring but have yet to face formal charges. Some of the activists were subjected to torture during interrogation, according to relatives and others briefed on their cases. Saudi Arabia denies that any were mistreated.
Some had campaigned openly for Saudi Arabia to lift its ban on women driving, while others had supported the cause in quieter ways. Some members of the group were in the process of opening a shelter for abused women when they were arrested, including a man who donated land for the project. He was released, but others were not.
But Dr. Fitaihi’s American citizenship means that his mistreatment, which has not been previously reported, may now pose a special threat to Saudi relations with Washington. The Trump administration is already struggling to quell a bipartisan backlash against the kingdom over the killing last fall of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, a Virginia resident and Washington Post columnist who was executed and dismembered by a team of Saudi agents in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
This past week, Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, met for the first time since the killing with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the kingdom. American intelligence agencies have concluded that the crown prince ordered Mr. Khashoggi’s killing.
Mr. Kushner met with Prince Mohammed to promote a potential resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which the prince and his country may play a big role.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has defied a congressional deadline to report about who was responsible for the killing. Instead, Mr. Trump has equivocated about whether Prince Mohammed might have authorized it, even as he has extolled the value of Saudi Arabian oil sales and defense contracts.
American friends of Dr. Fitaihi are stepping up a campaign to press Washington to take up his case. They say the Trump administration’s public silence about his incarceration is at odds with Mr. Trump’s repeated boasts about his successful efforts to extricate American citizens held abroad.
Mr. Trump counted 20 this past week, including at least one dual national.
Aya Hijazi, a dual citizen of the United States and Egypt who was invited to the White House for a televised appearance with Mr. Trump after her release from jail in Cairo, invoked the president’s “America First” slogan.
“Not making Walid Fitaihi a priority will send a message that America isn’t really first,” she said in text message to The New York Times. “Financial deals and petroleum are.”
Howard M. Cooper, a lawyer for Dr. Fitaihi, said in a letter to the State Department in January that he had indicated to his wife and family that “he is in fear for his life, that he cannot take his situation any longer, and that he desires all possible help.” A State Department representative declined to comment on the case, citing privacy considerations.
Saudi officials have denied any mistreatment of detainees. A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington said the kingdom has signed the convention against torture and prohibits its use.
Dr. Fitaihi got his American citizenship while studying and practicing medicine in the United States, where one of his sons lives. After returning to Saudi Arabia, he founded a private hospital in Jeddah and became well known as a motivational speaker.
The reason for his detention is unclear. But the friend who relayed Dr. Fitaihi’s account of his treatment said that he was questioned primarily about a relative by marriage who had also been detained, Adel Fakeih, a former top aide to the crown prince. Dr. Fitaihi believed his interrogators were seeking evidence against Mr. Fakeih, the friend said.
Announcing the end of its corruption purge at the end of January, Saudi Arabia said that 64 people were still being held for prosecution on new or pre-existing criminal charges. His friends say they believe Dr. Fitaihi is among them.