Saudis in U.S. targeted as dissent yields prison terms
WASHINGTON —A graduate student at Boston’s Northeastern University, Prince Abdullah bin Faisal al Saud seldom mentioned he was a member of Saudi Arabia’s sprawling royal family, friends say. He avoided talking about Saudi politics, focusing on his studies, career plans and love of soccer.
But after a fellow prince — a cousin — was imprisoned back home, Prince Abdullah discussed it with relatives in calls made from the U.S., according to Saudi officials, who somehow were listening. On a trip back to Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdullah was imprisoned because of those calls. An initial 20year sentence was hiked to 30 years in August.
Prince Abdullah’s case, detailed in Saudi court documents obtained by The Associated Press, hasn’t been previously reported. But it’s not isolated. Over the last five years, Saudi surveillance, intimidation and pursuit of Saudis on U.S. soil have intensified as the kingdom steps up repression under its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to the FBI, rights groups and two years of interviews with Saudis living abroad. Some of those Saudis said FBI agents advised them not to go home.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington, responding to an inquiry by the AP, said, “The notion that the Saudi government — or any of its institutions — harasses its own citizens abroad is preposterous.”
But in the same month that Prince Abdullah’s sentence was lengthened, Saudi Arabia gave a 72-year-old Saudi-American, Saad al
Madi, a virtual life sentence for tweets he had posted from his home in Florida. Al Madi was unexpectedly accused and imprisoned on a visit home to the kingdom. In sentencing al Madi, the kingdom split from a longstanding Saudi practice of sparing citizens of the U.S., its longtime military protector, from the worst of punishments.
Also in August, it gave a 34-year prison sentence to a 34-year-old Saudi student in Britain, Salma al Shehab, when she, too, visited the kingdom after tweeting about it.
All three sentences were imposed weeks after President Joe Biden set aside his past condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record to travel to the kingdom, despite criticism from lawmakers, rights groups and Saudi exiles.
It was a moment when the U.S. urgently needed the kingdom to keep up oil production. But Mr. Biden has ended up with no more oil — the Saudis and OPEC have
cut production — or any improvement in human rights.
Saudi rights advocates say the imprisonments validate their pre-trip warnings: Biden’s attempts to soothe the crown prince have only emboldened him.
Several authoritarian governments illicitly monitor and strike out against their citizens in the United States, often in violation of U.S. sovereignty, in what’s called transnational repression. Many of the cases the U.S. prosecutes involve rivals, particularly China.
But Saudi Arabia’s actions under Prince Mohammed stand out for their high-tech intensity, orchestration and, often, ferocity, and for comingfrom a strategic partner.
Freedom House, a research and advocacy group, says Saudi Arabia has targeted critics in 14 countries, including targeting coordinated and run from the United States. The aim is to spy on Saudis and intimidate them, or compel them to return to the kingdom, the group says.