Bahrain Mirror: Saudi authorities have arrested dozens of people, including prominent clerics, in what appears to be a coordinated crackdown on dissent, Human Rights Watch said today. The campaign comes three months after Mohammed bin Salman became crown prince in June 2017.

The reported arrests of Salman Al-Awda, Awad Al-Qarni, and more than a dozen others since September 10 are the latest in Saudi Arabia's ongoing repression campaign against dissidents including peaceful activists, journalists, and writers. A prominent writer, Jamal Khashoggi, announced that his publication, Al-Hayat, had banned him from writing regular opinion columns.

"These apparently politically motivated arrests are another sign that Mohammed bin Salman has no real interest in improving his country's record on free speech and the rule of law," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Saudis' alleged efforts to tackle extremism are all for show if all the government does is jail people for their political views."

"Outlandish sentences against peaceful activists and dissidents demonstrate Saudi Arabia's complete intolerance toward citizens who speak out for human rights and reform," Whitson said.

Arabic Version