Rights Group Raises Alarm Over New Saudi ’Corruption’ Arrests
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has voiced concern over the arrest of about 300 government officials in Saudi Arabia on corruption allegations, warning of possible “unfair legal proceedings” in an opaque judicial system.
“The fight against corruption is no excuse for flagrant due process violations and preventing people from mounting an adequate defence,” Michael Page, HRW’s deputy Middle East director, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Given their track record of abuse, the Saudi authorities should make fundamental reforms to the justice system to ensure that the accused will not be railroaded in unfair legal proceedings. Saudi authorities are declaring that they want to take on the scourge of corruption, but the right way to do that is through diligent and fair judicial investigations against actual wrongdoing, not sensationalistic mass arrests without due process,” Page said.
Saudi Arabia’s previous corruption crackdown, in November 2017, included the detention of dozens of prominent businessmen, royal family members, and current and former government officials for three months at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh. While the people were in detention, the authorities pressured them to hand over assets to the state in exchange for their release, outside of any recognizable legal process. Some of those detained in November 2017 remain in detention without charge, including Turki bin Abdullah, the son of the late King Abdullah and the former governor of Riyadh; Adel al-Fakih, a former minister; and Bakr Binladin, a construction mogul.
An informed source close to six of the detainees held in the Ritz-Carlton told Human Rights Watch that even though most of the detainees reached settlements and were released, they remain tightly monitored by authorities, even those who returned to their previous positions in their companies or in managing financial assets.
He said that in some cases the authorities have forced former detainees to involuntarily return to their former companies or positions or and compelled them to accept new roles.