...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...n authorities have arrested at least nine prominent judges amid reports that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists. As crown prince, Moe has quietly jettisoned his country's policy of trying to impose its religion on the rest of the world...
(MBS) is seeking to get rid of political dissidents and potential royal challengers with the aim of clearing his path to the succession once his elderly and ailing father, King Salman
...either the largest species of Pacific salmon or the current Sheikh of the Burnin' Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Lord of Most of the Arabians...
, steps down or dies.Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) reported that the judges are charged with "high treason" — a crime punishable by death in the kingdom. The judges are said to be loyal supporters of the 36-year-old prince, and the recent arrests bear striking similarities to previous purges of rivals of MBS.
Of the nine judges confirmed arrested, three came from the First-Degree Specialized (Terrorism) Court, three were from the Appellate Specialized Court, and the last three came from the High Court — the highest court in Saudi Arabia.
DAWN identified two of the judges as Abdullah bin Khalid al-Luhaidan and Abdulaziz bin Medawi al-Jaber.
Luhaidan convicted prominent women’s rights defender Loujain Alhathloul of baseless terrorism charges. Jaber sentenced a minor to the death penalty
. He also sentenced many people to death in the mass execution of 81 men last month.Saudi royals, billionaires, and senior government officials were tortured and blackmailed in early November 2017, when they were rounded up and detained at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in an extraordinary power play by MBS to remove people who could potentially pose a political threat.