Saudi authorities have detained
11 members of the royal family who staged a rally at the palace in
Riyadh to protest austerity measures forcing them to pay for their own
utility bills, Saudi media reported on Saturday citing anonymous
sources.
One online news website affiliated with the authoritarian government, sabq.org,
said the princes opposed a royal decree that halted the state payment
of royal family members’ water and electricity bills. They also demanded
compensation for a death sentence issued against one of their
relatives.
All 11 princes,
who were not identified in the media reports, were arrested after they
refused to leave the premises and were brought to the al-Hair
maximum-security prison awaiting trial because, the sources told the
website, everyone is equal before the law.
The arrests were carried out by an elite force of the Royal guards known
as Al Ajrab Sword Brigade, which is directly linked to King Salman’s
son, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, sabd.org reported in a separate article, without mentioning sources.
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