Saudi authorities detain wife, daughter of jailed dissident

Saudi authorities have reportedly arrested the wife and daughter of a jailed dissident, as a crackdown led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman against political opponents, scholars, human rights activists and pro-democracy campaigners widens in the kingdom.

According to media sources, Saudi regime forces detained the wife and daughter of Abdul-Karim bin Hussein bin Abdullah al-Nimr, who has been stuck in jail for 27 years without a trial, earlier this week upon an order from the General Investigation Department in the city of Dammam.

The report added that Saudi officials had earlier summoned Nimr’s eldest son to appear at the department. He asked his younger brother, Muhammad, to do so as he was on a trip to the capital Riyadh.

The latter went to the investigation department, where he was informed that authorities had arrest warrants for his mother, Maryam, and his sister, Mona.

They then forced him to accompany them to the family’s home. Upon arrival, regime forces started ransacking the building, without providing any reason for their actions. Panic-stricken family members looked on as the forces took away Nimr’s wife and daughter to an unknown location.

Human rights organizations argue that the harsh arbitrary sentences given by the Saudi judiciary to imprisoned dissidents manifest the extent of the kingdom’s disregard for international law, rampant injustice, as well as violations of human rights and civil liberties.

Since bin Salman became Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader in 2017, the kingdom has arrested hundreds of activists, bloggers, intellectuals and others for their political activism, showing almost zero tolerance for dissent even in the face of international condemnation of the crackdown.