New details emerge of dissident Saudi princes' abductions

A documentary broadcast on Tuesday by BBC Arabic asserts that three Saudi princes were victims of a government scheme to kidnap defectors and dissidents.

The most senior of the princes, Prince Sultan bin Turki, was kidnapped by the Saudis on 1 February 2016 together with about 20 members of his entourage, many from western countries.

In the documentary, two westerners in the prince’s entourage describe the moment they realised the plane they were travelling on was not landing in Cairo as planned, but had instead been diverted to Riyadh.

The westerners describe Prince Sultan screaming and fighting with the Saudi flight attendants, who produced concealed weapons in order to subdue him and control the other passengers as the plane touched down.

They said when the plane landed it was immediately surrounded by dozens of cars and military vehicles, as well as heavily armed Saudi soldiers and police. The prince was dragged kicking and screaming from the plane into an unmarked car, shouting to his entourage that they were all being kidnapped and that they should alert their embassies. The prince has not been seen in public since.

The rest of his entourage, which included a number of young female westerners, were then held for three days in Saudi Arabia.    (The Guardian)

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