Dubai - Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on
Saturday that Saudi Arabian authorities recently detained and
are holding incommunicado Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, who had
previously been netted in an anti-corruption drive and released
in late 2017.
The US-based rights group, citing a source with ties to
the royal family, said Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, a son of late
monarch King Abdullah, was detained by security forces on March
27 while self-isolating due to the coronavirus pandemic at a
family compound northeast of the capital Riyadh.
Reuters could not immediately independently verify the
detention. The Saudi government media office did not immediately
respond to a detailed Reuters request for comment.
Earlier in March, authorities had detained King Salman's
brother, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, and former crown prince
Mohammed bin Nayef, who was replaced in a 2017 palace coup and
placed under house arrest, sources had told Reuters.
Sources with royal connections said at the time that the
move was a preemptive effort to ensure compliance within the
ruling Al Saud family ahead of an eventual succession to the
throne by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman upon the king's death
or abdication.
It was not clear if the reported detention of Prince Faisal
was related to those in early March, which also saw Ahmed's son
Nayef and Mohammed bin Nayef's brother Nawaf detained.
Saudi authorities have not commented on those detentions,
which follow crackdowns on dissent in which clerics,
intellectuals and rights activists have been arrested, and an
anti-corruption drive launched in 2017 that netted scores of
royals, ministers and businessmen.
Critics have said the campaigns were part of moves by Crown
Prince Mohammed, the king's son and the kingdom's de facto
ruler, to consolidate his grip on power.
"Now we have to add Prince Faisal to the hundreds detained
in Saudi Arabia without a clear legal basis," said Michael Page,
deputy Middle East director at HRW.
The kingdom has regularly denied allegations of unfair
detention. Authorities said last year the government was winding
down the anti-corruption campaign after 15 months, but would
continue to go after graft.
HRW said Prince Faisal's whereabouts or status are not
known.
"The source said that Prince Faisal has not publicly
criticized authorities since his December 2017 arrest and that
family members are concerned about his health as he has a heart
condition," it added.
In late December 2017, a senior Saudi official said Prince
Faisal and another royal, Prince Meshaal bin Abdullah, were
released from Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel, where people nabbed
in the anti-corruption drive were being held, after reaching an
undisclosed financial settlement with the government.