According to a human rights organization, Saudi Arabia has detained at least 47 members of the Howeitat tribe in the northwest of the country for their opposition to relocation efforts intended to build the Neom megacity.
In a report titled “The Dark Side of Neom,” published on Thursday by the human rights group Alqst, information is given regarding those who have been imprisoned or vanished as a result of their opposition to the $500 billion project and other related violations of human rights.
According to the report, 15 tribe members have received sentences ranging from 15 to 50 years, and five others have received death sentences. It added that eight more had been released but that there was no information available on the whereabouts of the remaining 19 detainees.
ALSO READ: Saudi Arabia has alarming Rate of executions under bin Salman
According to reports, the sentences will reportedly be extended in the middle of 2022 as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman works to mend relations with the outside world after the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Information is provided regarding those who have been imprisoned or disappeared as a result of their opposition to the $500 billion project and other related human rights violations in a report titled “The Dark Side of Neom,” which was released on Thursday by the human rights organization Alqst.
In February 2021, Saudi authorities also detained Maha Suleiman al-Qarani al-Huwaiti, the only known female detainee, for tweeting about the cost of living and expressing grief over Huwaiti’s passing.
According to the rights organization, “These severe punishments meted out to Huwaitat tribe members are part of a larger trend that started in the summer of 2022, where people were getting lengthy prison sentences — of up to 50 years — just for social media activity calling for social and political reform.”
Shadli, Atallah, and Ibrahim al-Howeiti were detained in 2020 for resisting eviction, and on October 2, 2022, Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) sentenced them to death.
According to the report, Saudi authorities executed twice as many people in 2022 as they did in 2021 due to a “dramatic increase” in the use of the death penalty.
Following the normalization of diplomatic relations with Mohammed bin Salman, “these developments, taken together, represent a sharp deterioration in the human rights situation,” Alqst said.
The rights organization also notes in other parts of the report that Saudi authorities have frequently evicted residents against their will and in violation of international law.
According to the report, Saudi Special Forces were sent to the area in March 2020, sometimes with 40 vehicles, to raid and intimidate people who were resisting being evicted from their homes.
According to the report also, 20 locals who had come to defend a kidnapped child were detained by Saudi forces during a confrontation. It also states that the child was taken by the secret police after writing “We will not be moved” on walls.
Despite Saudi authorities’ claims that they had offered 620,000 riyals in compensation, the rights group claims that residents had only received as little as 17,000 riyals. Authorities have declined to relocate the residents near their former homes in the meantime. Residents of the Tabuk province have been forced to purchase homes in less affluent areas due to the low compensation.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, both of which Saudi Arabia has ratified, are both infringed upon by the expropriations of homes.
