Group of Saudi dissidents form party to overthrow monarchy

A group of Saudi dissidents in exile have formed a party to fight for political reform in Saudi Arabia in defiance of de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who has moved to crush any dissent.

The U.S. ally is an undemocratic absolute monarchy without an elected parliament or political parties.

Attempts in the past to organize politically in the Persian Gulf state in 2007 and 2011 were suppressed and members arrested.

The National Assembly Party (NAAS) called on Wednesday for an elected parliament and constitutional safeguards to ensure separation of the legislative, judicial and executive branches.

“The scope for politics has become blocked in all directions,” it said, calling for peaceful change to combat state “violence and repression.”

“The timing is very important ... the climate of repression is only increasing,” NAAS member and academic Madawi al-Rasheed told Reuters.

NAAS said the group aimed to create a national movement by working with “everybody from inside and outside the royal family”.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly been accused of widespread violation of human rights.

The government has also detained clerics, activists and intellectuals, and carried out a secretive purge of royals and other prominent Saudis for alleged corruption, and the sidelining of rivals to the throne.

King Salman, who had surgery in July, has delegated most responsibilities to his 34-year-old son and heir, who became crown prince in a 2017 palace coup and consolidated power.

Prince Mohammed was initially hailed in the US and Europe for bold reforms to open up the kingdom and diversify its economy, but his image was tarnished in the West by the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.

The kingdom, which is dominated by Wahhabism, an exceptionally intolerant ideology, is also accused of exercising radically-discriminatory policies against its Shia minority.

In January 2016, Saudi authorities executed Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, who was an outspoken critic of the Riyadh regime.



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