Exiled dissidents who were warned of Saudi Arabia’s threats said they were put in greater danger by the Biden government’s decision to waive direct sanctions on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – even when U.S. intelligence agencies acknowledged he was an accomplice in the murder. by Jamal Khashoggi.
Activists, including some who have already been warned that they were possibly at risk of being wounded by kingdom agents, said in interviews with the Guardian that they believed the 35-year-old crown prince would be encouraged after the White House’s decline to sanction it.
“Launch of the ODNI report by the Biden government [into Jamal Khashoggi’s murder] transparency is welcome, but the lack of direct accountability will give MBS permanent impunity, making it more dangerous, ”said Khalid Aljabri, the son of a former Saudi official who lives in exile in Canada and whose brothers, Omar and Sarah, are being held in the kingdom.
“He is probably thinking he can get away with future killings with impunity, as long as he doesn’t leave fingerprints,” said Aljabri.
The opinion was shared by several Saudis and others who are seen by Prince Mohammed as enemies of the kingdom.
In Norway, pro-democracy activist İyad el-Baghdadi, a Palestinian critic of the Crown Prince who lives under asylum protection, was rushed to safety in April 2019 after a CIA complaint that he was facing a potential threat. of Saudi Arabia Arabia.
“In fact, I am less secure now than I was before. The combined facts of [the US saying] “Yes, he did that” and “No, we can’t do anything about it, but sanctioning some of his henchmen” is very dangerous. What does this normalize? ”El-Baghdadi said.
“In my opinion, it can’t be that. It looks like the people in the White House are thinking about conventional foreign policy and need to wake up as hell. They are bringing a knife to a shootout. “
Another prominent dissident, Omar Abdulaziz, who was a close associate of Khashoggi and was warned last summer by Canadian authorities that he was a “potential target” in Saudi Arabia, said it was evident that the Crown Prince “could do whatever you want” .
“Nobody is going to stop him, nobody is going to punish him, they are going to call him a bandit,” said Abdulaziz, who is a Saudi and whose family and friends are trapped in the kingdom. “I’m trying to be optimistic here, but justice has not been done.”
He also pointed with concern to a recent reported case of a Montreal-based Saudi activist, Ahmed Alharby, who applied for asylum in Canada and was reportedly returned to the kingdom in mysterious circumstances after a visit to the Saudi consulate in Ottawa. According to the Toronto Star, a new Twitter account belonging to Alharby has started posting positive messages about Saudi Arabia, in stark contrast to Alharby’s previous criticism.
Saudi officials in Canada did not respond to requests for comment.
In Washington, Saudi academician and activist Abdullah Alaoudh praised the government’s new “Khashoggi ban”, a policy the state department said gives it additional tools to protect journalists and dissidents, but said Prince Mohammed was “out. hook “.
According to the policy, the department said it would now be allowed to restrict the issuance of visas to any individual who, acting on behalf of a foreign government, engages in “serious extraterritorial antisident activities”, including repression, harassment, surveillance and threats.
“This ban is designed to prevent foreign government agents from committing another horrific murder like Khashoggi’s anywhere in the world,” said a state department spokesman. But the U.S. government declined to comment on whether Prince Mohammed himself is one of 76 Saudis who have been placed on the visa ban list.
Alaoudh, whose father is a prominent Saudi reformer and scholar who faces the death penalty in a Saudi prison, said the new policy was a “big deal” but did not represent “responsibility or justice”.
He stressed that shortly after the government released the report and also sanctions against some Saudi officials, his colleague Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Dawn, a pro-reform group started by Khashoggi, tweeted in Arabic about an article the two wrote together calling it “MBS” – as it is known – a thorn in the side of the world and the Saudi people.
“It was read by tens of thousands of people, but that tweet got almost 3,000 responses from Saudi bots, with attacks and defamations against it,” he said.
“If the intention [of the administration] was to send a message to this guy, well, the mission was not accomplished. This is exactly the same environment, or worse, that led to the death of Khashoggi, ”said Alaoudh.
Hala Aldosari, another Saudi dissident in the United States, who focuses on women’s rights, said she was forced to sever her ties and her work with women in Saudi Arabia because they are guarded at home and faced investigations and torture for associating with her. .
“In the charges against [some women] activists, my name came up. I was considered a hostile agent, ”said Aldosari.
The Biden government highlighted the case of prominent activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who was recently released from prison, but still faces severe restrictions and a ban on travel in Saudi Arabia, as a sign of progress. But Aldosari said there was no sign that the Saudi regime was changing course.
“I don’t think the Saudi regime is open to compromise. Since Mohammed bin Salman came to power, power has been centralized and has become the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. This is not something you can solve by making a confidential report transparent, ”she said. “Mohammed bin Salman must be banned from visas and property.”
There are practical issues involved with the security precautions that Aldosari takes, such as avoiding Saudi embassies and consulates, which means that she has not been able to access an inheritance from her father.
“As a person, of course, I am concerned that I cannot see my family, I cannot contact them and speak to them freely. I always have the feeling that they can be affected. And I think that all activists in the diaspora are having these kinds of issues and problems, so they can’t really be around their own families, ”she said.
Asked if she thinks she could live more easily now, with the support of the new government, she said “of course not”. Even though she said she was grateful for Biden’s personal support for Loujain al-Hathloul – whose name he mentioned when she was released – she said it was important to remember that even this pressure did not guarantee Al-Hathloul’s freedom or the ability to return to work as an activist.
“If that happens to someone whose name has been negotiated at the highest level, you can imagine what could happen to people like us,” she said.