Rights group warn about ‘enforced disappearances’ in Saudi Arabia

A human rights group has voiced concern over the unknown fate of dozens of victims of enforced disappearance in Saudi Arabia, saying the kingdom is in a dark era under the rule of the infamous Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“The Saudi authority still ignores international condemnations and warnings and continues its repressive and arbitrary policy against the people of the country, in an effort to take away their freedom of opinion and expression,” Saudi Leaks cited the Sanad Rights Foundation as saying on Sunday.

The Sanad Rights Foundation noted that the enforced disappearance is one of the “brutal repressive” methods adopted by Riyadh against prisoners of conscience, describing it as a “black feature” of the era of Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the de facto ruler of the kingdom.

According to the rights group, Turki al-Jasser, Saud bin Ghosn, Ahmed al-Muzaini, Jabir a-Amri, and Abdulrahman al-Sadhan are among the prominent victims of the enforced disappearance of persons launched by Saudi authorities.

It condemned Riyadh for hiding the prisoners of conscience in violation of legal provisions, urging the Saudi regime to “review its policies and reveal the fate of the innocent victims.”

Last September, the group noted that the Saudi authorities have detained hundreds of scholars, preachers, thinkers, researchers, writers, journalists, and activists since the first campaign of arrests that took place in September 2017. Sanad denounced the regime for turning a blind eye to the danger of the targeting of prominent people who could play a role in the kingdom’s progress.

Ever since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman became Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader in 2017, the kingdom has ramped up arrests of activists, bloggers, intellectuals, and others perceived as political opponents, showing almost zero tolerance for dissent even in the face of international condemnations of the crackdown.

Muslim scholars have been executed and women’s rights campaigners have been put behind bars and tortured as freedoms of expression, association, and belief continue to be denied.

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