Fears rise over safety of detained Saudi princess, family confidant says

https://news.yahoo.com/fears-rise-over-safety-detained-083031175.html


Saphora Smith and Matteo Moschella
,NBC News•June 14, 2020


Relatives of a Saudi princess, a women’s rights advocate, who says she is imprisoned in the Gulf kingdom are concerned for her health after contact was cut with her two months ago, a source close to the family has said.

Princess Basmah Bint Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 56, a businesswoman and a granddaughter of the country’s founding king, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, was taken from her home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in March last year and imprisoned along with her daughter, Souhoud Al-Sharif, 28, the family confidant told NBC News.

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Since being imprisoned last year, she has been denied regular access to a doctor but has been hospitalized on several occasions, according to the confidant.

The specifics of Basmah’s illness remain unclear. The person close to the family said the princess had part of her colon removed in a past operation.

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It is not the first time that members of Saudi Arabia’s extensive royal family have been detained since the crown prince’s rise to power. In November 2017, hundreds of Saudi royals, billionaires and senior government officials were detained at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, where they were told they had to sign away large chunks of their assets to be released.

It has even been alleged by U.S. officials that the crown prince once put his own mother under house arrest.

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