Prominent doctor tortured in Saudi jails, say sources

The dual American-Saudi prominent doctor, Walid Fitaihi, has been beaten and tortured in Saudi jails, a well-informed source reported yesterday, quoting the detainee’s family, Anadolu reports.

The “Prisoners of Conscience” twitter account – in charge of documenting the news of detainees in Saudi prisons – said that Fitaihi was transferred to the Dhahban Prison hospital after his health was reported to have been deteriorated “physically and psychologically” from prison torture.

“The prison’s doctor enforced Fitaihi to take powerful sedative drugs which have negative effects on the brain,” the anti-Saudi regime account pointed out.

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Fitaihi is a physician who relocated to the United States in the 1980s for school and then worked here.

He repatriated to Saudi Arabia in 2006 to start a hospital, which his family built. But he was detained in November 2017 at the Ritz Carlton hotel along with other prominent Saudis.

The Saudi authorities arrested dozens of former and current Saudi princes, businessmen and senior officials at the five-star Ritz-Carlton Hotel located in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in early November 2017. The arrest was said to have been part of the kingdom’s so-called “anti-corruption campaign.”

Saudi opponents say the campaign is a “trick” to bolster Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s influence.

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