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Dubai, United Arab Emirates – As all countries in the Middle East do with their leaders, it is difficult to escape the posters and praises on the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the kingdom.
For activists, opponents and others ready to speak out against the 33-year-old heir, one of the world's largest oil exporters, it seems increasingly difficult to escape, whether at home or abroad.
It has long been known that the kingdom seizes turbulent princes or adversaries abroad and brings them back to Riyadh aboard private planes. But the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to the Washington Post, whose Turkish officials fear death, has potentially pushed this practice to a new macabre level by seizing a writer who could both sail in the Byzantine royal court of Arabia Saudi Arabia and explain it to the West.
The disappearance also removes a reformed polish carefully cultivated and promoted about Prince Mohammed in the middle of the kingdom allowing women to drive, revealing rather his autocratic tendencies.
"I am neither Gandhi nor Mandela," the prince told CBS in March, describing his personal wealth.
Saudi Arabia insists that the allegations about Khashoggi's disappearance are "baseless", but has not presented any evidence over the last week to substantiate their claim that it is safe. He was simply retired and would have disappeared in Istanbul, although his fiance had just waited outside. Turkey also has not fully explained why the authorities fear that Khashoggi was killed.
Prince Khalid bin Salman, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States, tried to express his sympathy for the carefully moderated critics in a note addressed to friends in English by the embassy to reporters.
"I would normally not want to address such outrageous claims, especially regarding the welfare of a missing citizen who has spent much of his life serving his country," Prince Khalid wrote. . "It goes without saying that his family in the kingdom remains gravely concerned about him, and us too."
This contrasts strongly with the tone adopted by Saudi local media, as well as by Saudi satellite channels and other broadcasters. The newspapers described Khashoggi's disappearance as a plot committed by Qatar, boycotted by the kingdom for three years. Al-Jazeera, the broadcaster funded by the State of Qatar, has been largely focused on the case in recent days.
Online, the smears were worse, describing Khashoggi as a supporter of al-Qaeda for the talks that he made with Osama bin Laden in the years leading up to his rebellion against the West and the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Khashoggi, apparently with the support of the royal court, has even asked bin Laden to return to the kingdom and renounce terrorism.
This harshness is consistent with growing international concern over Saudi Arabia's orientation under Prince Mohammed and his father. The kingdom has been praised by the international community for allowing women to drive in June. But just before that, the kingdom rallied and imprisoned women's rights activists, including capturing one who was in the neighboring United Arab Emirates.
Similarly, Prince Mohammed seduced the business community by promising to make an initial public offering of the oil giant, the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Saudi Aramco, suggesting a valuation of $ 2 trillion. He was the host of a major business summit at the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh, accompanied by a humanoid robot named Sophia, who obtained Saudi citizenship.
A few weeks later, the Ritz Carlton would become a luxury prison as part of a massive arrest of businessmen, members of the royal family and others orchestrated by Prince Mohammed as part of was described as targeting corruption. Those who were released agreed to give up some of their assets, giving the repression the feeling of a shakedown.
Meanwhile, the war in Yemen under the leadership of Saudi Arabia is attacking its stalemate that has been going on for years and continues to claim civilian lives in the poorest country in the Arab world.
The freezing of journalism and freedom of expression is not limited to Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf.
Ali Rashid al-Nuaimi, an influential official in the United Arab Emirates, told the young people gathered in Abu Dhabi on Monday: "Our enemies have joined media organizations that have reported that the UAE has a prison camp and committed human rights violations. human rights in Yemen ". Associated Press reported secret prisons in Yemen run by United Arab Emirates-backed forces, where detainees were physically and sexually abused, and how the UAE forces reached secret deals with militants. al-Qaeda to get them to leave the territory.
"If the worst-case scenario materializes, Saudi Arabia would have links to the murder of a vocal critic, designed to create doubt about the polish of an unlikely but sufficient denial," said the New York-based Soufan Center. said Tuesday. "It also sends an unequivocal signal to other journalists who dare to criticize the regime."
But even before, some, like Khashoggi, were self-exiled abroad. If the worst is confirmed about the fate of the journalist, it could push even more clandestine criticism and let even fewer people willing to speak frankly of the kingdom.
As Khashoggi wrote in his first column in the Post: "It's how badly you can lose morale with Saudi Arabia."
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EDITOR'S NOTE – Jon Gambrell, Acting Director of Gulf Information for the Associated Press, presented a report on each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other countries of the world since joining the AP in 2006. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com. / jongambrellap. His work can be found at http://apne.ws/2galNpz.
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