Senior Saudi royal detained and held incommunicado
Prince Faisal bin Abdullah al-Saud, a son of Saudi Arabia’s late monarch King Abdullah, has been in incommunicado detention since the end of March, according to a prominent rights group.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), citing a source with ties to the royal family, said on Saturday the prince was arrested by security forces on March 27 while self-isolating because of the coronavirus pandemic at a family compound northeast of the capital, Riyadh.
In 2017, the prominent member of the royal family had been rounded up and detained at a luxury hotel in Riyadh, in what was billed as an attempt to combat corruption among the higher echelons of the kingdom’s bureaucracy. Prince Faisal, a former head of the Saudi Red Crescent Society, was released later that year.
There was no immediate comment by Saudi authorities to the HRW’s report.
Earlier in March, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) had launched a sweeping crackdown against senior royals and security officers, according to several reports, in what observers saw as the latest effort by the heir to the throne and de facto ruler to consolidate power in the kingdom.
Two of the royal family’s most influential members, Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz, the youngest brother of King Salman, and Mohammed bin Nayef, the former crown prince and interior minister, were targeted in the crackdown.
https://anticorruptiondigest.com/2020/05/15/senior-saudi-royal-detained-and-held-incommunicado/