Summary: Riyadh Ritz reopening soon, remaining prisoners moving to Al Ha’ir prison. Most capitulated, holdouts including Prince Walid bin Talal continue to face torture by mercenary for their confessions and foreign assets. Sex party leaks destroy ex-Telecoms chief Saud Al Daweesh.
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Arab Digest generally distributes news that has already been published in other media, together with our own analysis, but we also draw on information from our own sources, including from our expanding network of Arab Digest members. Monday’s newsletter was based on both. The Daily Mail broke the news last November that a private security company from Abu Dhabi is handling the detainees inside the Ritz. Since then we have been in touch with our own sources confirming this. BBC Newsnight will be discussing this issue as well as some other points raised in Monday’s newsletter on Thursday night. It will be interesting to see if those alleged to be running the mercenary operations are named.
For fuller coverage of Saudi news, we recommend the separate Al Shafie Miles Saudi Newsletter, which I edit. This aims to inform a company’s leadership about the strategic direction the Kingdom is taking by providing the ‘news behind the news’ on current topics inside Saudi Arabia – please do get in touch anyone who would like more information.
A previous digest excoriated Tom Friedman as a source on Saudi affairs, but in the Digest on Monday the Daily Mail is heavily used as your source. Its article claims that the UAE supplied mercenaries for this and that people were tortured – this all seems to rely on one unnamed source. Could you clarify what you think of as good sources on Saudi Arabia?