A group of MPs and lawyers have asked to visit Saudi Arabia to discover the fate of two high-profile Saudi princes, the former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz.
The panel has been set up to investigate and report on the detention of the princes as well as other key political figures detained in the region. The princes have reportedly been denied legal advice, medical care and contact with their family since they disappeared in March.
The Conservative MP Crispin Blunt, who chairs the panel, said: “Our panel has submitted a request to the Saudi embassy in London for their assistance in organising a visit to the former crown prince Nayef and Prince Abdulaziz in order to establish the conditions of their detention.
“We have requested a visit to review the conditions under which they are being held along with permission to carry out an independent medical evaluation of their current health. Following an initial meeting with me, the Saudi ambassador to the UK has agreed to meet our panel in full more formally next week.”
The Saudi ambassador, Prince Khalid bin Bandar, informally met Blunt, the former chair of the foreign affairs select committee, this week.
Blunt used a similar tactic in September 2019 to press the Saudis to release detained women’s rights activists, some of whom were released at least temporarily after the panel was formed.
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Prince Mohammed is a former intelligence chief and former interior minister well known to the British government. Prince Ahmed is a brother of King Salman and had been living in exile in London until returning to the kingdom this year. No formal charges have been levelled against them.
The two men had been considered as possible rivals to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader. He succeeded Mohammed bin Nayef, who is nearly 30 years his senior, in June 2017.
Blunt said: “What price does anyone else have in Saudi Arabia if the former heir to the throne and the youngest and seventh son of the founder of modern Saudi Arabia and his wife, Massa bunt Ahmed Al Sudaria, are both arrested, detained and whose whereabouts are now unknown. The message sent to all in Saudi Arabia is unmistakeable and the need to find a way back from the brink is yet more critical.”
The other members of the panel are the recently elected Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan and the Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson, Layla Moran. She said concerns had been expressed that the princes were not being given access to their doctors “at a time of coronavirus”.
Blunt said it was entirely proper for the ambassador to assess the panel’s intentions before giving his advice to Riyadh on whether to cooperate, adding: “Far too many people round the world believe the worst of Saudi Arabia.”
He said: “Plainly there is a debate going on with Saudi Arabia on how to recover from the catastrophic decision to murder the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.” The reporter was killed in the Saudi consulate in Ankara two years ago.
It remains to be seen if the Saudi ambassador thinks it is wise to allow a panel of British MPs to start investigating what may be a power struggle at the top of the kingdom. At the same time, the Saudi leadership has been repeatedly told that overseas private sector investment in the kingdom is being held back by its reputation for human rights abuse and high-risk politics.
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