US Woman Detained by Saudi Officials After Saying She Has Been Trapped There Since 2019

By Staff, Agencies

A 34-year-old American woman has been detained in Saudi Arabia after she posted on Twitter that she and her young daughter had been lured to the kingdom and trapped there since 2019.

Carly Morris told relatives three years ago that she was planning to travel to Saudi Arabia for a brief period so that her eight-year-old daughter could meet her paternal grandfather. However, Morris then became locked in a years-long struggle to take her young daughter back out of the kingdom over the objections of her Saudi ex-husband.

US officials on Tuesday confirmed to the Associated Press the detention of Morris, a native of California. Spokesman Ned Price said: “Our embassy in Riyadh is very engaged on this case, and they’re following the situation very closely.”

Morris was detained after being summoned to a public prosecutor’s office on Sunday in connection with an allegation that she was “destabilizing public order,” according to an official document seen by the Guardian. The document states that Morris is American and lists her occupation as “housewife.”

The summons followed Morris’s publication of a lengthy statement on Twitter, in which she warned other women and children against visiting the kingdom. In the statement, she said she and her daughter had been held “against our will” in a hotel under “extreme and dire circumstances,” where they faced “extended social isolation” since 2019.

The whereabouts of Morris’s daughter, who is also an American citizen, are unknown.

The Saudi embassy in Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to an email from the Associated Press seeking comment.

The case marks the latest instance of a dissident or critic of the Saudi government being detained or convicted for using social media. Human rights activists at the Freedom Initiative, which has followed Morris’s story, said she was the third American being held in detention in Saudi Arabia.