Plot to kidnap Saudi dissident from US was revealed
The American “Daily Beast” website revealed that the Saudi regime planned to kidnap the opposition activist Abd Al-Rahman Al-Mutairi from the United States, but two members of the FBI thwarted the operation.
And the website quoted US sources, that a suspected Saudi agent tried to kidnap a critic of the regime residing in the Kingdom, according to al-Mutairi and multiple US and foreign sources familiar with the incident.
Al-Mutairi confirmed that the FBI saved him from becoming a new Jamal Khashoggi.
Al-Mutairi is a YouTuber, a 27-year-old comedian and former student at the University of San Diego, with a large social presence on social media.
After the assassination of Khashoggi in October 2018, Al-Mutairi posted on social media a number of videos critical of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
The American website narrated the details of the operation that an unknown Saudi man, suspected of being an agent of the Saudi authorities, accompanied Al-Mutairi’s father on a trip to return him to the Kingdom against his will.
“Only two of the FBI intervened at the appropriate time, which frustrated the operation plan,” Al-Mutairi said, stressing that he would have been killed as soon as he was returned to the kingdom.
The site pointed out that “the UN rapporteur for extrajudicial killings, Agnes Calamard, is aware of the Al-Mutairi case.
“There is a pattern followed by the Saudi authorities, especially over the past two years, which is targeting the prominent individuals who enjoy a large Saudi audience,” Either because they criticize the Saudi crown prince, or sometimes not because of what they say, but because of what they do not say, so Their support for the crown prince was not enough.
The American website indicated that Al-Mutairi had previously talked about the harassment he was subjected to because of his criticism of the Saudi regime, including a mysterious phone call from a Saudi person who tried to persuade him to return to the Kingdom in order to reunite the family.
But Al-Mutairi had not previously talked about his kidnapping attempt, and he justified this by saying: “I could not talk about that, it was a difficult situation, all I wanted was to get out of that situation.”
And the harassment of the Saudi regime of al-Mutairi may have succeeded recently. The YouTube channel, whose YouTube channel has more than 200,000 subscribers, and more on Instagram, has finally decided to stop criticizing the system.
Al-Mutairi explains the reason for his decision by saying: “My criticism of the regime will not do anything, it just pits more people against me; I try not to use a political dissident description, I just want to influence my country for the better.”
