Mohammed bin Salman

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Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud (2017)

Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud ( Arabic محمد بن سلمان بن عبد العزيز آل سعود, DMG Muḥammad b. Salmān b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl Saʿūd , common abbreviation MBS , born August 31, 1985 in Jeddah ) is the Crown Prince , Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia .

After he took office as Defense Minister, the Saudi Arabian military intervention in Yemen began in 2015 , in violation of international law . In June 2017, his father, King Salman ibn Abd al-Aziz , appointed Mohammed crown prince . Domestically, "MBS" initiated a cautious and media-effective liberalization in some areas of society. At the same time, however, numerous human rights violations continued under him , including a wave of arrests of civil society activists for dissenting opinions, the increased execution of death sentences and conflict-prone foreign policy measures.

Career

Mohammed bin Salman studied at the King Saud University in Riyadh and received a bachelor's degree in Islamic law . When his father Salman became king at the age of 79, with his first official act on January 23, 2015, he appointed the then 29-year-old minister of defense and head of the court, which controls access to the king. The newspaper Die Zeit described Mohammed bin Salman at the time as "extremely corrupt, greedy and arrogant". On April 29, 2015, Mohammed bin Salman was appointed Vice Crown Prince in place of Mohammed ibn Naif , a nephew of the king. The stampede in Mecca in 2015 , more than 2,400 pilgrims arrived in their lives, to have been caused by a blockage of the pilgrimage route, according to Iranian and Lebanese media to Mohammed bin Salman along with his companions and an escort of about 200 soldiers and about 150 police officers happen allow.

As Defense Minister, he has been responsible for Saudi Arabia's military operation in the civil war in neighboring Yemen since 2015. In April 2016, he bypassed the longtime oil minister Ali Al-Naimi and took over the oil business by failing a long-planned agreement at the oil summit in Doha: OPEC - and non-OPEC countries wanted to agree to stop oil production, to stop a further drop in prices. In the aligned Saudi media, Mohammed was celebrated as a national hero.

On June 20, 2017, the line of succession in Saudi Arabia was changed by King Salman. Instead of Prince Mohammed ibn Naif , Mohammed bin Salman rose to become Crown Prince. Mohammed ibn Naif also had to resign from his position as Minister of the Interior.

In April 2020, Saudi Arabia abolished whipping and the death penalty for minors at its behest .

Vision 2030

Mohammed bin Salman pushed the billion dollar project Vision 2030 , which is linked to the creation of the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world ( Public Investment Fund ). The project includes a. an expansion of renewable energies with the aim of making the country independent of oil in the long term. In October 2017, at an economic forum, he announced that his country would turn away from ultra-conservative religious principles. Regarding the use of the 16 planned nuclear power plants, Mohammed declared in March 2018 that Saudi Arabia is aiming for an exclusively civil use of this energy; in the event that Iran had nuclear weapons, the country would "follow suit as soon as possible". At the beginning of April 2018, Mohammed recognized Israel's right to exist for the first time in an interview with The Atlantic ( Israel is diplomatically not recognized by Saudi Arabia ).

Arrests

Arrests while leading an anti-corruption campaign

On November 4, 2017, two months after a wave of arrests in which, among other things, the scholar Salmān al-ʿAuda, who is considered to be moderate , was arrested, Mohammed was installed by his father, King Salman ibn Abd al-Aziz , as head of an anti-corruption campaign in their Around 200 people were arrested, including eleven princes, four incumbent ministers and dozen former members of the government. Those arrested included Prince Al-Walid ibn Talal , the richest man in Saudi Arabia with an estimated fortune of more than $ 17 billion, Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah , son of the late King Abdullah , who headed the National Guard as minister until his arrest also Adel al-Fakieh , then Minister of Economics. Since then, Mohammed has controlled the entire security apparatus in the country. In addition, the Saudi media moguls Walid al-Brahim ( Middle East Broadcasting Center , MBC) and Saleh Kamel ( Arab Radio and Television , ART) were arrested. This allows Mohammed to control the burgeoning entertainment sector. The arrests were presented by the Saudi Arabian government as anti-corruption measures. Observers saw measures by the Crown Prince to secure his power. The Washington Post described the campaign as a power struggle with supporters of the previous King Abdullah and his son Turki bin Abdullah , who had been critical of the actions of Mohammed bin Salman. Turki is still in custody today (November 2018). The prisoners were initially housed in the posh Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, later in other, unknown locations.

Further arrests at the behest of Mohammed bin Salman

In March 2020, King Salman's brother Ahmed ibn Abd al-Aziz and the king's nephew (Mohammed bin Salman's cousin) Mohammed ibn Naif were charged with treason (allegedly preparing a coup to overthrow Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and of the king) arrested.

Lifting of the driving ban for women and arrests of women's rights activists

An internationally welcomed decision was that women have been allowed to drive their own cars in Saudi Arabia since June 24, 2018. However, it is criticized that women are still subject to severe restrictions in everyday life, that it was a lonely decision by the heir to the throne and the king - who in 2015 still had draconian punishments for violating this ban - and that it was presumably one Action taken because of the reputation of Saudi Arabia and for the benefit of its economic development.

A few weeks earlier, on the first day of the fasting month of Ramadan , Mohammed had arbitrarily arrested the country's most famous women's rights activists in a spectacular wave of arrests. According to the Ministry of the Interior , they were accused by those in power of “having set up a spy cell to damage religious and national principles”. A smear campaign against them was launched in the government and social media and they were defamed as "embassy spies" and "traitors".

Among those arrested were Loujain al-Hathloul (who has become the face of the motoring movement in recent years), professors Hatoon al-Fassi and Hessa Al-Sheikh (the latter from the family of Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ) blogger Eman al-Nafjan , Aisha al-Mana ( human lawyer and 1990, one of the co-initiators of the first woman driving), the Psychoanalytikerin Madeha Alajroush , the professor Aziza al-Yousef , youth activists Mohammad as-Rabea and human law Ibrahim al-Modaimigh . All of them had publicly advocated women's right to drive (Sabq, in Arabic) and called for the abolition of the strict Islamic guardianship law, which largely incapacitates women. The 70-year-old al-Mana and the 63-year-old Alajroush had protested against discrimination against women in the 1990s. Amnesty International criticized the allegations as "blatant intimidation tactics". The historian Rosie Bsheer wrote in the weekly newspaper The Nation that the Crown Prince, whose “reform spirit” is extolled everywhere, is on the way to shaping a modern absolute rule in which all criticism of the rule should only come from the rule itself. He runs a system of brutal repression .

In March 2018, during a trip to the USA, Mohammed declared that he was committed to ensuring that women should no longer be required to wear the abaya in the future .

Repressions according to the McKinsey report

A study by the management consultancy McKinsey on the Saudi Arabian austerity measures in 2015 revealed that criticism was leveled by three Twitter accounts in particular. Repressions followed immediately:

  • The journalist Khaled al-Alkami was arrested in September 2017 and has been in custody ever since.
  • The phone of Omar Abdulaziz , who lived in exile in Canada , was tapped and two of his brothers were arrested in Saudi Arabia.
  • The account of the anonymous user "Ahmad" has been closed.

The McKinsey spokesman said he was appalled at the possible misuse of the report, which was not commissioned by the Saudi Arabian government and was intended for internal use only.

Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi

Mohammed bin Salman has been linked to the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi , who disappeared on October 2, 2018 while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul . The Washington Post , for which Khashoggi had worked, reported that the Crown Prince had previously tried to persuade the journalist to return to Saudi Arabia to arrest him there. Numerous men of the Saudi special command, which is held responsible for the disappearance and allegedly for the murder of Khashoggi, are said to come from the immediate vicinity of Muhammad.

The pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah published a list of the 15 men who are said to have flown to Istanbul on October 2, 2018. The German news magazine Der Spiegel identified the following members of the killing team as the crown prince's bodyguards :

  • Mohammad Saad A-Zahrani, number 4 on the list, stood just a few meters behind Mohammed bin Salman during a reception by Yemeni heads of state in April 2018, as documented on Saudi Arabian television.
  • Khalid Alotaibi, number 6 on the list, has been named a member of the Royal Life Guard by the Washington Post .
  • Abdulaziz Mohammed Alhawsawi, number 7 on the list, has been identified by the New York Times as a bodyguard who is said to have accompanied the Crown Prince on trips.
  • Thaar Ghaleb Alharbi, number 10 on the list, stood behind Mohammad Saad A-Zahrani and Mohammed bin Salman at the reception in April. The previous year he had been promoted to lieutenant from the Crown Prince in gratitude for defending one of his palaces against an assassin.

Four other men on the list of 15 are said to be in close contact with the Crown Prince:

  • Waleed Abdullah Alshehri, number 8 on the list, is a member of the Saudi Arabian Air Force and was personally promoted to major by the Crown Prince in 2017.
  • Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, who was accredited as a Saudi Arabian diplomat in London until 2007, accompanied the Crown Prince on trips to Europe and the USA in 2018. He could have been promoted to his security officer.
  • Two other members of the list are said to report directly to the Crown Prince, one as the secret service agent, one as his chief of staff.

The former FBI agent Ali Soufan believes that the Crown Prince wanted to set an example: “If you […] want to be dangerous to me, then I will strike back. I'll get you no matter where you are. "" He wanted it to be just as brutal as it was. "

Because of his alleged role in the murder of Khashoggis, Mohammed bin Salman, who is sometimes called "MBS" in English, was given the sarcastic-metaphorical nickname Mister Bone Saw (German: Mr. Bone Saw).

literature

Web links

Commons : Mohammad bin Salman  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Saudi Embassy about Biographies of Ministers
  2. ↑ Martin Gehlen: King Salman cleans up the Saudi court . In: Zeit Online . January 30, 2015.
  3. ↑ Saudi King Salman appoints a new crown prince . In: Welt Online . April 29, 2015.
  4. ↑ Peter Mühlbauer : 717 trampled to death at this year's Hajj . In: Telepolis . September 25, 2015; Prince Salman convoy triggered Hajj stampede: Report . In: Press TV . September 24, 2015, accessed January 5, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Intervention Policy": BND warns of Saudi Arabia. In: Spiegel Online , December 2, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Prince Ruthless" seizes the Oil Scepter . In: Kurier.at . April 21, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  7. ↑ Saudi Arabia exchanges its crown prince . In: Welt Online . June 21, 2017.
  8. ↑ Saudi Arabia abolishes the death penalty for minors , Spiegel Online, April 27, 2020.
  9. ↑ Paul-Anton Krüger: The Prince and the nuclear power. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 18, 2018.
  10. ↑ The Saudi Crown Prince grants Israelis the right to own land. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 3, 2018.
  11. ↑ From the archive: This is how Jamal Khashoggi criticized the Saudi crown prince . In: Spiegel Online . September 16, 2015 ( spiegel.de [accessed June 10, 2019]).
  12. ↑ The Saudi royal family arrests princes and ex-ministers . In Zeit Online , November 5, 2017.
  13. ↑ Dozens of arrests: Saudi Arabia's king dismisses ministers and strengthens Crown Prince . In: Spiegel Online . November 5, 2017 ( spiegel.de [accessed June 10, 2019]).
  14. ↑ Marwan M. Kraidy: Why did Saudi Arabia target billionaire media tycoons in its purge? In: The Washington Post , November 16, 2017.
  15. ^ Christoph Sydow: Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed - Tomorrow a King. In: Spiegel Online , November 6, 2017; Benjamin Barthe: Le royaume saoudien se met en ordre de bataille. In: Le Monde , 6 November 2017.
  16. ^ David Ignatius : The Khashoggi killing had roots in a cutthroat Saudi family feud . Washington Post, November 27, 2018.
  17. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Saudi Arabia: Crown Prince Mohamed arrests several princes - DER SPIEGEL - politics. Retrieved March 7, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Jonah Shepp: Don't Be Fooled by Saudi Arabia's Plan to Let Women Drive. In: New York , September 30, 2017 (English).
  19. ↑ Quand MBS a peur que les femmes activistes lui fassent de l'ombre , Kassataya
  20. ↑ https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1116557/sept-defenseurs-des-droits-de-la-femme-arretes-en-arabie-saoudite.html
  21. ↑ http://www.fr.de/politik/saudi-arabien-herber-schlag-gegen-frauenrechte-a-1509995
  22. ↑ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/05/saudi-arabia-chilling-smear-campaign-tries-to-discredit-loujain-al-hathloul-and-other-detained-womens -rights-defenders /
  23. ↑ Martin Gehlen: Saudi Arabia: Just don't lose control. In: Zeit Online. May 21, 2018. Retrieved May 27, 2018 .
  24. ↑ https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Absolutistisches-Saudi-Arabien-Viel-schlechter-als-sein-Ruf-4055419.html?seite=all
  25. ↑ https://derstandard.at/2000080084532/Bekannteste-saudische-Frauenaktivistin-als-Verraeterin-in-Haft
  26. ↑ https://apnews.com/175564ee238842ea8222b7218f41156b
  27. ↑ https://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2018/05/21/conduis-et-tais-toi-le-message-paradoxal-de-riyad-aux-saoudiennes_5302350_3218.html
  28. ↑ Sarah El Sirgany Hilary Clarke: Saudi Arabia arrests female activists weeks before lifting of driving ban CNN, May 21, 21, 2018
  29. ↑ https://www.amnesty.ch/de/laender/naher-osten-nordafrika/saudi-arabien/dok/2018/vorkaempferinnen-fuer-die-frauenrechte-verhaftet
  30. ↑ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/05/saudi-arabia-more-activists-arrested-in-continuing-crackdown/
  31. ↑ Chiling smear campaign against women's rights defenders , Amnesty International, May 19, 2018
  32. ↑ How Mohammed bin Salman Has Transformed Saudi Arabia , The Nation, May 21, 2018
  33. ^ Paul-Anton Krüger: The revolutionary advance of the Saudi crown prince. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 19, 2018.
  34. ↑ Michelle Mark: The Saudi government reportedly targeted and punished several dissidents after McKinsey identified them in a report , Business Insider , October 20, 2018
  35. ↑ Saudi government critic disappeared in Istanbul. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 3, 2018.
  36. ^ Crown prince sought to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and detain him, US intercepts show. In: Washington Post, October 10, 2018.
  37. ↑ Suspects should come from the Crown Prince's environment. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 17, 2018; Laura Smith-Spark, Bard Wilkinson: Jamal Khashoggi investigation closes in on Saudi Crown Prince's inner circle. In: CNN.com , October 18, 2018.
  38. ↑ Turkish newspaper identifies 15 Saudis allegedly involved in the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi . In: The Independent . ( independent.co.uk [accessed November 15, 2018]).
  39. ↑ Death on the Bosporus. In: Der Spiegel , N. 43, October 20, 2018, pp. 14–23 (descriptions on p. 20)
  40. ↑ Death on the Bosporus. In: Der Spiegel , N. 43, October 20, 2018, pp. 20–21.
  41. ↑ Der Spiegel (Hamburg): "He wanted it brutal" , N. 43, October 20, 2018, p. 20.
  42. ↑ Saudi Arabia: "Mister Bone Saw" | TIME ONLINE
  43. ↑ Portrait of Bin Salman: A Modern Dictator | FR.de
  44. ^ The Guardian view on Saudi Arabia: in need of new leadership | Editorial | Opinion | The Guardian
  45. ↑ Khashoggi death: US meets Saudi crown prince despite criticism - BBC News
  46. ↑ As the case of Khashoggi Salman's bone saw modern shows
  47. ↑ Commentary - Better no money from Saudi Arabia - Culture - Süddeutsche.de
personal data
SURNAME Mohammed bin Salman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud; محمد بن سلمان بن عبد العزيز آل سعود (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saudi Arabian nobleman, Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1985
PLACE OF BIRTH Jeddah