Princesses who upset Saudi leader are freed after three years

Two Saudi princesses who were arrested three years ago for ­offending Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have been freed after an international campaign.

Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. Picture: AFP

Two Saudi princesses who were arrested three years ago for ­offending Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have been freed after an international campaign for their release.

Henri Estramant, a legal ­adviser to Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, 58, said she had been returned home in Jeddah with her daughter, ­Suhoud al-Sharif, 30.

Basmah is known to have had serious health problems, which her imprisonment had exacerbated. “The princess is doing fine but will be seeking medical expertise,” Mr Estramant said in a statement.

“She seems worn out but is in good spirits, and thankful to reunite with her sons in person.”

The women disappeared in February 2019. Basmah and her family had lived abroad for much of her life after her father, King Saud, was forced to abdicate in 1964.

The direct involvement of the crown prince, who is known as MBS, was suspected because the security guards who seized her appeared to be from his personal detail and said they had been told to escort her to his palace for a meeting.

In fact the women were taken to al-Hair prison, 40km from ­Riyadh, where political prisoners have been held. Basmah briefly had access to her mobile phone, and relatives posted updates on Twitter, asking for Saudi Arabia’s allies, such as Britain, to intervene on her ­behalf.

The women’s disappearance came at a turning point in the ­relationship between MBS and the rest of the world.

He had begun his rise to power in 2015 after the accession to the throne of his ­father, King Salman, and marked himself out as a social reformer. Elbowing aside a cousin, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, he launched a purge of members of the royal family and prominent businessmen whom he accused of corruption.

In September 2017, he ordered that from summer 2018 women would be allowed to drive, breaking a long taboo in the kingdom.

A ban on cinemas, concerts and theatres was also lifted.

These reforms began to be ­accompanied by harsher treatment of dissidents, including women who had campaigned for the right to drive.

Basmah had been well known as a critic of the kingdom’s conservative attitudes to women, although it is possible she was arrested because she was seen as sympathetic to MBS’s rival, ­Mohammed bin Nayef. He has been put under house arrest, along with an uncle, Prince Ahmed, also seen as a rival for power.

In October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist, was killed and his body dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

In the ensuing furore, MBS, who was accused of ordering the murder, was said to have become increasingly paranoid about ­opposition to him and even threats of assassination.

Saudi authorities did not comment on reports of the princesses’ release. In 2020, officials told the UN that they had been accused of “criminal offences involving attempting to travel outside the kingdom illegally”.

This appears to refer to an attempt by Basmah to use a private jet to escape from the kingdom in the December before their arrest.

The fact that the flight would have landed in Turkey, then seen as orchestrating a campaign against MBS over Khashoggi’s murder, may have been an ­additional factor in the decision to arrest her.

The Times