Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, appears to be further tightening his grip on power following another wave of detentions against human rights and online activists.
Since he outmanoeuvred more senior rivals in 2017 to become crown prince, MBS has received favourable coverage in international media, with a multitude of reports focused on his economic and social reforms in the conservative kingdom.
However, previous arrests and an ongoing crackdown on dissent in the kingdom, as well as the gruesome murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has shifted the focus towards the darker side of MBS’s record. This also includes thousands of civilian deaths in Yemen and a rapid rise of the number of executions since his ascent to power.
The New York Times has recently posted a new report about MBS' image abroad and in western media, saying that “the West is kidding itself about freedom in Saudi Arabia, especially women’s freedom.
The article stated that “Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is officially back in good standing, having spent his summer putting the finishing touches on a wildly successful reputation rehabilitation. The kingdom’s de facto ruler bumped fists with President Biden, who not long ago accused him of heading a “pariah” state; basked in the sycophantic praise of Greek officials in the birthplace of Western democracy; and feasted at the Élysée Palace with President Emmanuel Macron.”
“Foreign officials sometimes mention the grisly murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi or Saudi atrocities in Yemen, but these fleeting condemnations have started to feel like a rote obligation hastily done so that everyone can get back to angling for oil. With Russia’s war in Ukraine straining global energy markets, morals are a luxury the West can no longer afford, or so they think. But, of course, they can’t say that.”
How to deal with despots?
For its part, The Economist said that “the best way for Western leaders to avoid charges of hypocrisy is to refrain from staking out moral positions they cannot sustain.”
US President Joe Biden had promised during the 2020 campaign to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” because of Khashoggi's killing. But this month he went to Jeddah and fist-bumped MBS and was widely condemned for hypocrisy and moral cowardice.
27 journalists in Saudi prisons
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) revealed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is currently detaining at least 27 journalists and bloggers and is suspected of having ordered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s October 2018 murder.
“Four years after the journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, Mohammed bin Salman’s reintegration into international relations cannot take place at the expense of truth and justice,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.
Each of MBS’s meetings with foreign leaders raises the issue of the impunity surrounding Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018.
Saudi Snitching App
Earlier this week, The Guardian revealed that Saudi Arabia is using a ‘snitching' app to suppress human rights and online activists. ‘Kollona Amn' or ‘We Are All Security' is a new mobile application set up by Saudi security forces to suppress online activists at home and abroad.
Essentially used for surveillance and snitching, the crime-reporting app widens the state's enforcement of censorship by encouraging citizens to help suppress online activism.
Kollona Amn has officially been described as an app that allows citizens and expatriates to submit security and criminal reports related to personal life attacks, threats, impersonation, extortion, social media account hacking, defamation, fraud and other criminal offences.
