Riyadh, January 08: A Saudi human rights group calls for the dismissal of the Kingdom’s interior minister, Prince Nayef, accusing him of violating human rights.
In a letter to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, the Civil and Political Rights Association blamed Prince Nayef for what it called systematic human rights violations in the country and demanded his prosecution.
The rights group claimed Prince Nayef’s policies encourage extremism in the KSA and elsewhere. It has also criticized the interior ministry for limiting civil liberties and suppression.
“The ministry has robbed the people of their rights and grown less tolerant of those who resist injustice, tyranny and corruption,”.
Prince Nayef, 76, the ailing king’s half brother and Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz’s full brother, has been Saudi Arabia’s interior minister for 35 years. He is also considered second in line to the throne.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is currently in the United States, recovering from two back operations.
In the absence of the 86-year-old monarch, his halfbr-other, Crown Prince Sultan, who is also in his 80s, is in charge of the Kingdom.
The monarch’s ill health has raised concerns about the future of the world’s biggest oil exporter, where royal succession is a highly sensitive subject of debate.
—-Agencies