David Bell

I'm going to do my petty tour here, my asshole tour.

I've gotten rid of the big enemies.

One prominent detainee was a cleric named Salman al-Awda.

In his younger days, he'd been an extreme fundamentalist, and he'd spent time in prison for demeaning the royal family, arguing against their right to rule.

In more recent years, he'd become almost a progressive.

Hosting popular shows on YouTube and television and building a massive younger following on social media with generally positive, upbeat videos about Islam and modern life.

What really got him in trouble was his growing embrace of constitutional monarchy.

Al-Awda framed this as an attempt to help the kingdom and House of Saud avoid an Arab Spring of their own.

He gently suggested that the government might try to listen to its people a little more rather than governing by the whims of Mohammed bin Salman and his ailing father.

He was arrested and has been held in solitary confinement from September of 2017 up to the present day.

His brother complained about the arrest on Twitter and has also been detained.

If his case ever comes to trial, he could get the death penalty, although given the fact that his health is deteriorated by bars, that may not be.

He could be dead now.

I don't think we know.

Wow.

There's a lot of guys like that.

The whole Ritz-Carlton affair was carried on in a very hush-hush manner by the Kingdom security forces.

They obviously wanted everyone to know the broad strokes of what had gone down, and there were specific names they wanted publicized, but the government never released a comprehensive list of names and only accused them vaguely of intelligence activities for the benefit of foreign parties and engaging in espionage while having contact with external entities.

The Muslim Brotherhood was named as a specific example.

Long-term consequences ranged from prison terms to home detention.