A spokesperson for the Huwaitat tribal community, which is currently facing eviction from their land in Saudi Arabia to make way for the regime’s Neom megacity project, has spoken to the media about threats made against her.
Alya al-Howeiti, who now lives in London, has said that multiple threats have been made against her after she spoke out against Saudi human rights abuses and the war on Yemen. She also says she fears those working for the Saudi regime will attempt to poison her after she received a tip-off warning her of the risk.
In an interview with Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, Howeiti said that she had been summoned to the Saudi embassy and that a royal tried to “lure” her back to the country.
Howeiti has been a key figure in the movement for justice in the Huwaitat community and has raised international awareness of Saudi attempts to displace the tribe. This includes the murder by Saudi forces of Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti, a member of the tribe in north-west Saudi Arabia, on 13 April 2020.
While Howeiti is now a well-known campaigner, she was formerly a celebrated jockey in Saudi Arabia. In 2005 she became the first female jockey in the country to join international competitions.
On being summoned to the Saudi embassy in 2018 over tweets she posted criticizing the regime, she said: “The ambassador tried to persuade me to change what I wrote on Twitter. I was terrified. They wanted me to support the Yemeni war and stop criticizing the regime.”
She said that she was only allowed to leave the embassy after promising to delete her social media posts – although she never did.
She told the newspaper: “I have received messages – both on WhatsApp and Twitter – that they will throw acid in my face, that they will shoot me, drive me down by a car, that they will kidnap me, that I have to look over my shoulder. There have been pictures of a saw.”
She also claimed that she was told by a source close to the Saudi royal family to be “careful about what you eat and drink” and that “two men from Saudi Arabia had flown to London with a dose of poison. The poison was specially designed to give no symptoms if you died from it.”
Howeiti said that Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, an influential international billionaire businessman, tried to “lure” her back to Saudi Arabia. One message is reported to have read: “You can come as long as you want. We have a beautiful stable for horses… It must happen very soon. The job is actually taken, and the horses need help and care immediately. Everything is 100 percent clear.”
The price was later detained by the regime of Saudi de facto ruler crown prince Mohammed bin Salman during the purge of court opponents in 2017. He was released after being charged with corrupting and reaching a financial settlement with the regime.
Despite this, Alya al-Howeiti has continued to stand up for the rights of the Huwaitat, against Saudi human rights abuses, and for an end to the war in Yemen.
