The cousin of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Ben Salman, has been released and no charges have been brought against her.
This week, Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 57, finally regained freedom, after spending the last three years languishing in Al-Ha’ir, a prison in Saudi Arabia. Beside him was one of his daughters, Souhoud Al Sharif. The mother and daughter were arrested in March 2019.
“The two women were released from their arbitrary detention and were able to return to their homes in Jeddah on Thursday, January 6, 2022, announced this Saturday, their lawyer Henri Estramant. The princess is doing well but will have to undergo medical examinations. She seems exhausted but psychologically she is well and is delighted to find her sons in person ”. Saudi security forces have yet to comment on the release of Princess Basmah and her daughter Souhoud.
In March 2019, when the princess, who lives in the city of Jeddah, must go to Switzerland for medical analyzes, Basmah and daughter arrested by eight gunmen, representatives of the police. For weeks on end, they disappeared completely from circulation. A silence that deeply worries the activist network in Saudi Arabia. Thirteen months later, Basmah unexpectedly reappears on Twitter. In just a few lines, she announces that she has been imprisoned for no reason and suffers from serious health problems without receiving the care necessary for her condition.
A family matter
Without too many surprises, the publications, sent from the detention center, are quickly deleted and the mystery of his disappearance remains intact. According to other Saudi activists, the arrest of Princess Basmah would have taken place after several speeches during which she fervently criticized the actions of the Crown Prince, Mohammed Ben Salman, her cousin. An outspokenness that had disastrous consequences for her and her immediate family. In addition, Bashmah is said to have claimed part of a multibillion-dollar legacy left by his father, the former King Saud. A request deemed inappropriate by the prince.
Al-Ha’ir is now an infamous prison because other activists and militant feminists were imprisoned there. Among others: Loujain al-Hathloul who had publicly defended the right of women to obtain their driving license. A question that still divides society in Saudi Arabia.
One of the Saoud family members commented on the case in the columns of the newspaper “The Guardian”, affirming: “Basmah thought that her rank and her family ties would protect her but MBS (Editor’s note. Mohammed Ben Salman) imprisoned family members more important than her”.
Princess Basmah is the youngest of King Saud’s 115 children ben Abdelaziz Al Saoud, who had been forced to abdicate in favor of her brother Façal in November 1964. Born a few months earlier in the same year, her youngest daughter had little contact with her father before his untimely death in 1969. Exiled from Saudi Arabia, Basmah grew up in Beirut in Lebanon with his mother, of Syrian origin, but when civil war broke out, the family took refuge for a time in London and in Syria. She subsequently studied in the United States.
Married then divorced by Shuja bin Nami bin Shahin Al Sharif, Basmah is a mother of five and lived in the United Kingdom for a few years before returning to live in Saudi Arabia where she founded several companies, including a chain of restaurants. Entrepreneur and human rights activist, Princess Basmah has probably not said her last word.
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