Intel: House Democrats want answers from Saudi ambassador over jailed female activists

A group of seven congressional Democrats laid into Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States on Wednesday for failing to respond to their repeated requests to discuss the kingdom’s continued detention of female rights activists. 

“We are deeply disappointed that the Saudi government would violate diplomatic norms by ignoring our request to get answers on the well-being of women activists who remain in prison,” the seven House members, including Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Jackie Speier of California, said in a statement.

They received no answer to their July letter to Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud asking for a meeting to discuss the imprisonment status of activists Loujain al-Hathloul, Nouf Abdulaziz and Eman al-Nafjan. California Rep. Adam Schiff sent a letter to the diplomat in June requesting an update on Hathloul’s confinement, which also went unanswered. 

The three human rights defenders were arrested along with several other activists in May 2018 as part of a sweeping crackdown on right-to-drive activists and opponents of the male guardianship system. Nafjan was temporarily released pending trial, but Hathloul and Abdulaziz remain in prison, where rights groups say detainees are regularly subjected to solitary confinement and torture.