Aide to Mohammed bin Salman 'supervised torture of female prisoner'
Source: Reuters
A top aide to Saudi Arabia's crown prince, fired for his role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, personally oversaw the torture of at least one detained female activist earlier this year, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Saud al-Qahtani was a royal adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman until October, when he was sacked and then sanctioned by the US Treasury over the Washington Post columnist's murder.
Now three sources, briefed on the activists' treatment, say a group of men subjected this woman and at least three others to sexual harassment, electrocution and flogging between May and August at an unofficial holding facility in Jeddah.
They described the group of about six men as distinct from the regular interrogators the women saw and said they belonged to the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, which Mr Qahtani headed at the time, or to state security.
Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/aide-mohammed-bin-salman-apos-115624437.html
leftyladyfrommo
(18,815 posts)MadDAsHell
(2,067 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Or is this simply another "well... that's MY own experience."
Iggo
(47,487 posts)Blue Owl
(49,913 posts)n/t
bullwinkle428
(20,626 posts)byronius
(7,369 posts)The royal family needs to go. And international isolation and pariah-dom lies down the road for them as well as the devaluing of the only asset they possess, as long as Trump is overthrown and the US recovers its senses.
The oil money is keeping them in the thirteenth century. I'd like to see us help the Saudi people by advancing beyond fossil fuels and freezing their international assets for being a terrorist state and for their participation in the rise of Trump.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)freaking republicans and their degenerate values
MontanaMama
(23,238 posts)torius
(1,652 posts)oh, wait...
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)They must have been terrified beyond imagination.
And as we have seen so often in the past, religious zealots rarely act saintly when in positions of control over women.
riversedge
(69,715 posts)....Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said last month at least three of the activists -- most of whom had agitated for the right to drive and an end to a male guardianship system -- were tortured. They did not report Mr Qahtani's involvement.
The sources, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, told Reuters that Mr Qahtani was in the room on several occasions when one of the four detained activists was subjected to kissing, groping and electrocution. He made threats of rape and murder to the woman, the sources said.
At least two other detainees endured sexual insults, flogging and electric shocks that turned one of the women's fingers blue, the sources said. Captors also made another woman kiss a male detainee while they watched, one of the sources said.
Reuters could not determine whether Mr Qahtani was in the room during the episodes with those three other detainees, but the sources said all of the women's tormentors were from "Saud's group".