A group of intellectual Saudi Arabian expatriates have launched an opposition party on the second anniversary of the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
The aim of the National Assembly party is to gather the support of people inside and outside Saudi Arabia for the formation of a representative government, which would be the first elected democratic institution inside the country since its birth 90 years ago.
Madawi al-Rasheed, a scholar and party co-founder, said the party’s leaders were “already being bombarded by threats, including threats of beheading, since we violated the taboo of uttering the words democracy and political party”.
Rasheed said the new non-sectarian party would try to show how claims by the powerful Saudi crown prince and heir to the throne, Mohammed bin Salman – that the country was modernising – were a sham, and that total obedience to the royal family was still demanded.
Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post, was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018. » | Patrick Wintour, Diplomatic editor | Friday, October 2, 2020
