Saudi Arabia releases Princess Basmah and one of her daughters after almost three years without charges

Saudi princess Basmah Bint Saud, during a debate on women in the Middle East, in 2017.MANDEL NGAN (AFP)

Saudi Arabia has released Princess Basmah and her daughter Souhoud after nearly three years in detention without charges being brought against them.

It is not clear what caused his sudden release, which occurred last Thursday, but has not emerged so far.

The Saudi authorities, who have suffered a serious image problem since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, have not commented on the matter.

Basmah Bint Saud, 57, was arrested along with one of her daughters, Souhoud al Sharif, in 2019 as she was about to travel to Switzerland for treatment for a heart condition.

His imprisonment was only known nine months later when his relatives leaked it to the press.

The same opacity that surrounded his case then remains today.

In announcing her release on Saturday night, the Saudi human rights group ALQST recalled that "at no time during her detention has any charge been brought against her."

BREAKING: Basma bint Saud Al Saud and her daughter Suhoud, detained since March 2019, have been released.

pic.twitter.com/tTsh6kPgzE

- ALQST for Human Rights (@ALQST_En) January 8, 2022

An adviser to the princess, Henri Estramat, has confirmed to Reuters that "the two women were released from their arbitrary detention and arrived at their home in Jeddah on Thursday 6 January". According to this source, "the princess is fine, but she is going to seek medical advice." In her opinion, "she gives the impression of being exhausted, but she is in a good mood and grateful to be reunited with her children."

The Saudi government, which has faced a serious image problem since the assassination of Khashoggi at its Consulate in Istanbul, has not made any announcements or comments. Nor did she do so when the princess's family revealed her arrest or the interested party requested clemency from her uncle King Salmán and her cousin, Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salmán, in an unusual open letter in April 2020. As a result of that daring , spread by his family on social networks, the authorities cut off contact with his children.

The absence of information led to speculation about the reasons for her deprivation of liberty. Some close friends of the princess attributed it to his defense of a constitutional reform and the rights of women. In a written statement to the UN in 2020, his family said it was because he had "criticized the abuses" of the regime and a dispute over his father's inheritance (lands that would have been confiscated when he was forced to abdicate and money frozen in Swiss accounts). Other sources linked the case to his friendship with Prince Mohamed Bin Nayef, the heir displaced by Mohamed Bin Salmán and later accused of treason.

Whatever the cause, it seemed that Basmah had been caught up in a family quarrel. She was always a different princess, professionally active and with an unusual presence in the media. Perhaps it was influenced by the fact that the youngest of one hundred children of King Saud was born shortly before his death and grew up between Beirut and London alongside their Syrian mother. Although after her wedding to a prominent Saudi in 1988 she settled in the Desert Kingdom, after divorcing in 2007 she began to write articles for various media, undertook various businesses and returned to the British capital.

His denunciation of corruption and economic inequalities in the Middle East gave him a certain reputation for being “open and media”, although he never criticized the royal family of which he felt he was a part. But that activity became more complicated when he returned to Saudi Arabia again in 2016. Two years later, an interview with the BBC in which he called for an end to the intervention in Yemen was his last public appearance, before his arrest. just the day he turned 55.

Since Prince Mohamed Bin Salmán took the reins of power, numerous critics have been detained, including a dozen princes. Several of them had held important positions at the head of the security agencies, as governors or in business. The princess did not fit that profile. In addition, she was locked up in Al Hair, a jail on the outskirts of Riyadh known for harboring criminals and jihadists, in the face of the usual house arrest that used to be used with women of the royal family. During the reign of Abdullah (2005-2015) the strange confinement of four of his daughters in a palace in Jeddah came to light. After the king's death, they were never heard from again.

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