Exiled dissidents who have been warned of threats against them by Saudi Arabia said they have been put in greater danger by the Biden administration’s decision to forgo direct sanctions against Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – even as US intelligence agencies admitted he was an accomplice. to the murder. from Jamal Khashoggi.
The activists, including some who had previously been warned that they may be at risk of being hurt by agents of the kingdom, said in interviews with the Guardian that they thought the 35-year-old crown prince would be encouraged after the White House was denied. to sanction him.
The publication of the ODNI report by the Biden government [into Jamal Khashoggi’s murder] welcomed by transparency, but the lack of direct accountability will give MBS permanent impunity, making it more dangerous, ”said Khalid Aljabri, the son of a former senior Saudi official living in exile in Canada whose siblings, Omar and Sarah , are held in the kingdom.
“He probably thinks he can get away with future murders as long as he doesn’t leave fingerprints,” said Aljabri.
The view has been shared by a number of Saudis and others 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 a safe location in April 2019 after a tip from the CIA that he faced a potential threat of Saudi Arabia. Arabia.
“I am actually less safe now than before. The combined facts of [the US saying] “Yes, he did” and “No, there is nothing we can do about it, but sanctioning some of his henchmen” is very dangerous. What does this normalize? Said El-Baghdadi.
“I don’t think this could be it. It seems like people in the White House are thinking about conventional foreign policy and they should fucking wake up. They bring a knife to a firefight. “
Another high-profile dissident, Omar Abdulaziz, who was a close associate of Khashoggi and who was warned by Canadian authorities last summer that he was a “potential target” of Saudi Arabia, said it was clear the Crown Prince “can do what he has. want”. .
“No one will stop him, no one will punish him, they will call him a bad guy,” said Abdulaziz, who is Saudi and whose family and friends are imprisoned in the kingdom. “I try to be optimistic here, but justice is not served.”
He also raised concern at a recently reported case of a Montreal-based Saudi activist, Ahmed Alharby, who sought asylum in Canada and was reportedly returned to the kingdom under mysterious circumstances after a visit to the Saudi consulate in Ottawa. According to the Toronto Star, a new Alharby Twitter account has begun posting positive reports about Saudi Arabia, in stark contrast to Alharby’s earlier criticism.
Saudi officials in Canada have not responded to requests for comment.
In Washington, Saudi academic and activist Abdullah Alaoudh praised the government’s new “Khashoggi ban”, a policy the State Department said provides additional tools to protect journalists and dissidents, but said Prince Mohammed was “let go” nevertheless. .
Under the policy, the department said it would now be allowed to limit the issuance of visas to any person who, acting on behalf of a foreign government, engages in “serious, extraterritorial counter-dissenting activities,” including repression, intimidation, etc. surveillance and threats.
“This ban is intended to deter agents of foreign governments from committing another gruesome murder like that of Khashoggi anywhere in the world,” said a spokesman for the State Department. But the US government has declined to comment on whether Prince Mohammed himself is one of 76 Saudis placed on the visa ban list.
Alaoudh, whose father is a prominent Saudi reformer and scholar who sees the death penalty in a Saudi prison, said the new policy was a “big deal” but did not represent “accountability or justice.”
He pointed out that his colleague Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Dawn, a reformist group founded by Khashoggi, shortly after the government released the report, as well as sanctions against some Saudi officials, tweeted in Arabic about an op-ed. the two had written together that they called “MBS” – as he is called – an eyesore for the world and the Saudi people.
“It was read by tens of thousands of people, but that tweet got nearly 3,000 responses from Saudi bots, attacking and defamation against it,” he said.
“As intended [of the administration] was to message this guy, well the mission is not completed. This is the exact same environment, or worse, that led to the murder of Khashoggi, ”said Alaoudh.
Hala Aldosari, another Saudi dissident in the US who deals with women’s rights, said she was forced to cut her ties and work with women in Saudi Arabia because they are being monitored at home, and that she 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 has raised the case of prominent activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who was recently released from prison but continues to face severe restrictions and a travel ban in Saudi Arabia as a sign of progress. But Aldosari said there was no sign of the Saudi regime changing course.
“I don’t think the Saudi regime is open to compromise. Ever since Mohammed bin Salman came to power, it’s been about centralizing power and becoming the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. You can’t solve this by making a secret report transparent, ”she said. “There must be a visa ban, asset bans for Mohammed bin Salman.”
There are practical problems with Aldosari’s security measures, such as avoiding Saudi embassies and consulates, which prevented her from gaining access to her father’s inheritance.
“As a person I am of course afraid that I will not be able to see my family, that I will not be able to contact them and talk to them freely. I always feel that they may be affected. And I think all activists in the diaspora have these kinds of problems and problems, so they can’t really be close to their own family, ”she said.
When asked if she felt she could live more easily now, she said, given the support of the new government, “of course not.” Although she said she was grateful for Biden’s personal support of Loujain al-Hathloul – whose name he mentioned when she was released – she said it was important to remember that even this pressure was Al-Hathloul’s freedom or ability to return. to work as an activist.
“When 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.