Several top Saudi businessmen appear more eager to deploy cash at home and abroad months after the Ritz crackdown, the person said. They know the next few years will be tough, but they hope it’s for the right reason, he said.
But what happened left many others unsettled. The kingdom is rife with talk of detainees subjected to torture, including beatings and electric shocks. Three associates of detainees and a person briefed by a doctor who treated some of them relayed similar accounts of physical abuse.
The government has denied allegations of torture, and at least two released detainees, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Waleed Al Ibrahim, founder of Middle East Broadcasting Center, have said in media interviews that they were treated well. The government’s Center for International Communication did not respond to a request for comment.
To go home, detainees were shown a settlement amount desired by the government and pressured to agree, sometimes totaling close to the entirety of their wealth, according to people familiar with the matter. Since their release, they’ve being contacted by authorities repeatedly and given deadlines to pay up, the people said.
Those who remain in custody have been held for more than six months now without trial. Gregory Gause, a professor of international affairs and Saudi specialist at Texas A&M University, said he expects the government wants to avoid trials. “Too much dirt can come out,” he said. That said, they may be inevitable, he said.
“The way the purge was prepared in full secrecy and the swiftness with which it was implemented are impressive,” said Steffen Hertog, a professor at the London School of Economics who focuses on the Gulf monarchies. “But the campaign also shows that the government sometimes underestimates the complexity of policy challenges and the collateral damage its actions can create.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.