High-up Saudi officials tortured

SENIOR SAUDI PERSONALS WERE TORTURED AND BEATEN IN ONGOING ‘PURGE’ – MEDIA

SouthFront,

10 November, 2017

Prince al-Waleed bit Talal is one of scores of Saudi nationals arrested on the weekend. He’s among the world’s wealthiest individuals, with an estimated net worth of $41 billion. FILE IMAGE: FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Some senior personals detained in the ongoing “anti-corruption purge” in Saudi Arabia were beaten and tortured during their arrest or subsequent interrogations, Middle East Eye reports:

People inside the royal court also told MEE that the scale of the crackdown, which has brought new arrests each day, is much bigger than Saudi authorities have admitted, with more than 500 people detained and double that number questioned.

Members of the royal family, government ministers and business tycoons were caught up in the sudden wave of arrests orchestrated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, under the banner of an anti-corruption drive.

Some, but not all, of the top figures arrested were singled out for the most brutal treatment, suffering wounds to the body sustained by classic torture methods. There are no wounds to their faces, so they will show no physical signs of their ordeal when they next appear in public.

Some detainees were tortured to reveal details of their bank accounts. MEE is unable to report specific details about the abuse they suffered in order to protect the anonymity of its sources.

The report added that the purge “is creating panic in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, particularly among those associated with the old regime of King Abdullah, who died in 2015, with power then passing to his half-brother, King Salman. Many fear the primary purpose of the crackdown is a move by MBS to knock out all rivals both inside and outside the House of Saud before he replaces his 81-year-old father.”

The Saudi authorities also freezed private accounts of a high number of Saudi figures, including the bank accounts of Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.