https://www.wsj.com/articles/jailed-womens-rights-activists-tell-saudi-investigators-of-torture-11545074461
Human-rights commission investigating alleged waterboarding, electrocution of activists who led campaign to end driving ban on women
A human-rights commission reporting to Saudi King Salman is investigating the alleged torture of detained women’s rights activists, including accusations of waterboarding and electrocution, according to government officials and other people familiar with the activists’ situation.
A top aide to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saud al-Qahtani, allegedly oversaw some aspects of the torture and threatened at least one jailed woman with rape and death, according to testimony before the commission, those officials and others said.
One activist told the commission that security officials electrocuted her hands. “My fingers resembled barbecued meat, swollen and blue,” the woman told Saudi investigators, according to a person familiar with her statement.
The alleged treatment of the activists, along with the killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, are part of what critics of the Saudi government say is a broad effort to quash dissent and limit freedom of speech.
The Saudi government has dismissed the allegations as “wild claims” and denied security officials tortured the detained activists, many of whom were men and women campaigning for women’s right to drive. Saudi government representatives didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article.
The Saudi Human Rights Commission was created by the country’s previous monarch, King Abdullah, in 2005 to primarily investigate allegations of government abuses and report them to the king. It has the power to refer cases to judicial authorities for criminal investigation, something it has done in the past. The commission began its investigation after The Wall Street Journal, rights groups and others in November reported on the alleged torture.
Saudi Arabia’s attorney general is currently conducting a separate investigation into the killing of Mr. Khashoggi. It has exonerated Prince Mohammad, saying he had no knowledge of the operation, although his top aide, Mr. Qahtani, was dismissed from his job and is implicated in the investigation.