Saudi Arabia Has Tortured an American Citizen - NYT
By New York Times
A dual citizen of Saudi Arabia and the United States had been imprisoned in the Ritz Carlton in Riyadh for about a week when he heard a knock on his door, the New York Times reported.
Guards dragged Walid Fitaihi, a Harvard-trained physician, to another room, according to a friend who took down the prisoner’s detailed account of his treatment. Dr. Fitaihi, told the friend he was slapped, blindfolded, stripped to his underwear and bound to a chair. He was shocked with electricity in what appears to have been a single session of torture that lasted about an hour.
His tormentors whipped his back so severely that he could not sleep on it for days, his friend said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals. The doctor described the physical abuse, in general terms, to his relatives as well, a person close to them said.
Detained in November 2017 in what was billed as a crackdown on corruption, Fitaihi, 54, remains imprisoned without any public charges or trial. About 200 prominent Saudis were detained with him, and he is one of dozens who remain in prison.
Friends and families of others detained have also described episodes of torture. At least 17 detainees were hospitalized soon after the crackdown for injuries sustained while in custody, according to a doctor at the hospital and an American official monitoring the crackdown.
A military officer who had been detained died with a twisted neck and other signs of abuse on his body, according to a person who saw it. Women’s rights advocates jailed in Saudi Arabia also said they were tortured, including by electrical shocks, according to their relatives and rights groups.
But Dr. Fitaihi’s American citizenship means that his mistreatment, which has not been previously reported, may now pose a special threat to Saudi relations with Washington. The Trump administration is already struggling to quell a bipartisan backlash against the kingdom over the killing last fall of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, a Virginia resident and Washington Post columnist who was executed and dismembered by a team of Saudi agents in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
This past week, Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, met for the first time since the killing with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MBS], the de facto ruler of the kingdom. American intelligence agencies have concluded that MBS ordered Khashoggi’s killing.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, defied a congressional deadline to report about who was responsible for the killing. Instead, Trump equivocated about whether MBS might have authorized it, even as he has extolled the value of Saudi Arabian oil sales and military contracts.
Meanwhile, American friends of Dr. Fitaihi are stepping up a campaign to press Washington to take up his case. They say the Trump administration’s public silence about his incarceration is at odds with Trump’s repeated boasts about his successful efforts to extricate American citizens held abroad.
Dr. Fitaihi got his American citizenship while studying and practicing medicine in the United States, where one of his sons lives. After returning to Saudi Arabia, he founded a private hospital in Jeddah and became well known as a motivational speaker.
The reason for his detention is unclear. But the friend who relayed Dr. Fitaihi’s account of his treatment said that he was questioned primarily about a relative by marriage who had also been detained, Adel Fakeih, a former top aide to MBS. Dr. Fitaihi believed his interrogators were seeking evidence against Fakeih, the friend said.
