Documentary broadcasting this week asserts three princes were victims of government scheme to kidnap defectors.
New details have emerged about the abductions of three dissident
Saudi princes in what appears to be a systematic state-run Saudi
government programme to kidnap defectors and dissidents.
The three, all members of the Saudi regime before they became
involved in peaceful political activities against the government in
Riyadh, were kidnapped and taken against their will to Saudi Arabia between September 2015 and February 2016.
Their story, which was originally reported by the Guardian
in March 2016, is the subject of a BBC Arabic documentary to be
broadcast this week called Kidnapped! Saudi Arabia’s Missing Princes.
The most senior of the princes, Prince Sultan bin Turki, was
kidnapped by the Saudis on 1 February 2016 together with about 20
members of his entourage, many from western countries.
In the documentary, two westerners in the prince’s entourage describe
the moment they realised the plane they were travelling on was not
landing in Cairo as planned, but had instead been diverted to Riyadh.
New details have emerged about the abductions of three dissident
Saudi princes in what appears to be a systematic state-run Saudi
government programme to kidnap defectors and dissidents.
The three, all members of the Saudi regime before they became
involved in peaceful political activities against the government in
Riyadh, were kidnapped and taken against their will to Saudi Arabia between September 2015 and February 2016.
Their story, which was originally reported by the Guardian
in March 2016, is the subject of a BBC Arabic documentary to be
broadcast this week called Kidnapped! Saudi Arabia’s Missing Princes.
The most senior of the princes, Prince Sultan bin Turki, was
kidnapped by the Saudis on 1 February 2016 together with about 20
members of his entourage, many from western countries.
In the documentary, two westerners in the prince’s entourage describe
the moment they realised the plane they were travelling on was not
landing in Cairo as planned, but had instead been diverted to Riyadh.
On the third day the westerners were marched one by one into a room
at the hotel by heavily armed Saudi soldiers where a Saudi military
officer apologised for the inconvenience before making them sign
documents in Arabic which they did not understand.
Their kidnappers then asked them where they wanted to travel. Later
they were brought one by one to the airport, walked through security and
on to a plane minutes before takeoff and then had their passports
returned.
The documentary also presents new evidence about the previous alleged
kidnap of Prince Sultan in 2003, including a medical record from King
Faisal hospital in Riyadh.
The medical report indicates the prince was aspirated and intubated
in Geneva before being put on a medevac plane to Saudi Arabia, which is
consistent with the prince’s claim that he was traumatically injected on
the side of his neck as he was violently abducted by five masked men.
One British member of the prince’s entourage describes how hours
after the prince was kidnapped the Saudi ambassador in Geneva arrived at
the prince’s suite in the Intercontinental hotel in Geneva to tell his
entourage they should all get out as the prince was now in Riyadh.
There has been no attempt by the Swiss government or any western
authority to try to get access to Prince Sultan or any of the kidnapped
princes in Saudi Arabia.
The criminal case for kidnap that Prince Sultan is pressing in Geneva
against two senior Saudi officials – Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahd and the
minister of Islamic affairs, Saleh al-Sheikh – remains open.
The documentary also reveals new details about the abduction of
another dissident, Prince Turki bin Bandar. Prince Turki is a former
senior police officer whose responsibilities once included policing the
royal family.
In the documentary, a friend of Prince Turki presents a note the prince wrote to him before he disappeared in 2015, saying he feared the Saudi government was going to kidnap or assassinate him.
The Moroccan newspaper As Sabah
reported that in November 2015 Prince Turki was arrested and detained
at Sala prison in Morocco as he was leaving to return to France.
A few days later Prince Turki was deported to Saudi Arabia at the request of the kingdom’s authorities.
In the documentary, a friend of a third disappeared prince, Saud bin
Saif al-Nasr, tells how he too said before he disappeared that he
thought the Saudis were going to kidnap or assassinate him for his
opposition activities.
In 2015 Prince Saud was approached by a Russian-Italian business
consortium which asked him to be their business partner in exchange for a
fee. They persuaded him to board a private plane to Italy where he
thought he was going to a business meeting to finalise the contract.
Like the other princes, he has not been seen or heard of since.
The Saudi and Moroccan authorities have made no comment in response to the new evidence.
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