RIYADH (Middle East Eye) – At least 47 members of the Howeitat tribe in Saudi Arabia have been either arrested or detained for resisting eviction to make way for the Neom megacity, according to a new report.
Human rights organization, Alqst, published “The Dark Side of Neom”, outlining the names of all those detained or disappeared for speaking out against the project, and detailing human rights abuses committed against evictees.
The $500bn new Saudi megacity - which organizers claim will be 33 times the size of New York City - is being built in the Tabuk province of northwestern Saudi Arabia, where the displaced al-Howeitat tribe had, until recently, lived for centuries.
The report found that 15 members of the tribe had been sentenced to between 15 and 50 years in prison, while five were sentenced to death. A further 19 were detained with no further information on their fate, while eight were released.
The report notes a marked extension in jail sentences since mid-2022, coinciding with the rehabilitation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman within the international community, following years of diplomatic isolation in the aftermath of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
“The correlation is clear,” Lina al-Hathloul, head of monitoring and communications at Alqst told Middle East Eye during the launch of the report in London. “It’s clear that the more [Crown Prince] MBS is rehabilitated, the worse things get”.
Abdulilah Rashid Ibrahim al-Huwaiti and Abdullah Dakhil Allah al-Huwaiti were both sentenced to 50 years in prison and a 50-year travel ban for supporting their family’s refusal to be forcibly evicted to make way for the construction of Neom, as MEE reported in September.
Maha Suleiman al-Qarani al-Huwaiti, the only known woman among those detained, was arrested in February 2021 for tweeting about the cost of living and mourning the death of Huwaiti.
She was initially sentenced to one year in prison, which was increased to three years on appeal. In August 2022, in violation of Saudi law, she was retried on the same charges and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
In April 2020, tribal activist Abdul-Rahim al-Howeiti was shot dead shortly after making videos protesting against his eviction to make way for the megacity.
In a confrontation, Saudi forces detained 20 residents who had come to defend a kidnapped child, reads the report, adding that the minor was abducted by the secret police after writing “We will not be moved” on walls.
According to the rights group, residents were offered as little as 17,000 riyals in compensation despite Saudi authorities’ claim of offering 620,000 riyals. Meanwhile, authorities have refused to resettle the resident in proximity to their former homes. The low compensation has forced residents to buy homes in poorer neighborhoods in the Tabuk province.