The Saudi Mabahith ( ar, المباحث العامة, , General Investigation Directorate), also spelled ''Mabaheth'', is the

secret police Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic ...

agency of the

Presidency of State Security Presidency of State Security is a Saudi Arabian security body created in 2017 by combining the counterterrorism and domestic intelligence services under one roof. The new body will be concerned with all matters related to state security, and will ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

, and deals with domestic security and counter-intelligence. The officers of the Mabahith have delegated powers to investigate, survey, and detain individuals who are deemed to be "threats to national security". The Mabahith has conducted a wide variety of security operations that have led to the arrest of high profile terrorists, and opposition members that caused internal unrest. Officially, the Mabahith are to turn over arrested individuals to the Saudi courts for sentencing. The Mabahith have been used by the government of Saudi Arabia to monitor political opposition and individuals they deem to be threatening to Saudi society. The organization has been criticized by the United Nations,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

, and

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

Role

According to

, the Mabahith "monitors suspected political opponents and others, targets individuals for arrest, and interrogates detainees. Mabahith agents operate with impunity and have been responsible for a wide range of human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, and

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

" including

waterboarding Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method of waterboard ...

denailing Denailing is the extraction of the nails from the fingers and/or toes, either as an accident, a medical procedure to treat severe nail infections, or as a method of torture. Health consequences Removed nails are capable of growing back normally o ...

flagellation Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...

and beatings, amongst other forms of severe abuse. Members of the Mabahith were allegedly responsible for the torture of Western detainees arrested during a car bombing campaign which started in 2000. Two members in particular, Khalid al-Saleh and

Ibrahim al-Dali Ibrahim ( ar, إبراهيم, links=no ') is the Arabic name for Abraham, a Biblical patriarch and prophet in Islam. For the Islamic view of Ibrahim, see Abraham in Islam. Ibrahim may also refer to: * Ibrahim (name), a name (and list of people w ...

, were named by William Sampson in his court action against the Saudi government. Sampson and others lost their case in the

UK High Court The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...

when the Saudis used the

State Immunity Act 1978 The State Immunity Act 1978 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which was passed to implement the European Convention on State Immunity of 1972 into British law. The doctrine of absolute state immunity was changed to one of restr ...

as their defence.

Prisons

Al-Ha'ir Prison

Al-Haa'ir Prison Al-Ha'ir Prison, ( ar, سجن الحاير also known as al-Hayer al-Hayar or al-Haer), is a Saudi Arabian political, maximum-security, Mabahith-affiliated prison located approximately 25 miles south of Riyadh. It is the largest prison complex in ...

is a Mabahith-affiliated prison. The Mabahith have conducted classified interviews as well as interrogations of high profile Al-Qaeda members being held in the prison.

ʽUlaysha Prison

Mabahith runs the

ʽUlaysha Prison ʽUlaysha Prison (also ''ʽUlaisha'', ''Alisha'', ''Olisha'', ) is a prison in Riyadh run by the Saudi Arabian secret police agency Mabahith for arbitrary detention. During the 2011 Saudi Arabian protests, "the only brave man in Saudi Arabia", K ...

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the ...

, where it holds prisoners under

arbitrary detention Arbitrary arrest and arbitrary detention are the arrest or detention of an individual in a case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that they committed a crime against legal statute, or in which there has been no proper due process of law ...

. The

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has objected to arbitrary detention at Mabahith's prison. , arbitrarily detained prisoners apparently include five founding members of a would-be political party, the

Umma Islamic Party The Umma Islamic Party ( ar, حزب الأمة الإسلامي) is a political party in Saudi Arabia that was formed on 10 February 2011 in response to the Arab Spring. Formed by a collective of opposition members including Islamists and intel ...

, and

Khaled al-Johani Khaled al-Johani (also ''al-Jehani'', Arabic: خالد الجهني, born 23rd August1971 {{51) is a teacher of religious instruction in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was imprisoned, without charges or trial for nearly one year, at ʽUlaysha Prison for ...

, who publicly protested in

on the 11 March "Day of Rage" during the

2011 Saudi Arabian protests Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''E ...

. Political prisoners living in exile have testified that Mabahith agents used illegal interrogation methods and tortured political dissidents who were being held arbitrarily in the prison.

Dhahban Central Prison

Dhahban Central Prison Dhahban Central Prison ( ar, سجن المباحث العامة بذهبان), also known as Dhahban Prison, is a maximum security prison facility located near Dahaban, Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. It was built in 2015 as part of a renovation of the ...

is used for arbitrary detention. According to the

report, women activists – who have been detained since May 2018 – were taken to Dhahban and tortured in a room called an “officer’s guesthouse”. Reportedly, the men who tortured these women were from “cyber security” – a reference to officers working under

Saud al-Qahtani Saud bin Abdullah al-Qahtani (born July 7, 1978) is a Saudi Arabian consultant and former royal court advisor. Prior to his dismissal in late 2018, he worked as an advisor to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. ...

, who was fired for his involvement in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

References

External links

Official website
{{2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests Saudi Arabian intelligence agencies 1924 establishments in Saudi Arabia

Secret police 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests Organizations of the Arab Spring