Saudi Arabia: King Abdullah’s former wife makes complaint

An ex-wife of King Abdullah, Alanoud Daham Al-Bakheet Al-Fayez, and two of her four daughters have made complaints to the western press about their poor treatment in Saudi Arabia. Al-Fayez started a campaign to publicise the situation of her children in autumn 2013 (including an active Twitter campaign using the hashtag #freethefour); their story has now been covered by the UK’s The Sunday Times, Channel 4 News and The Economist, Spain’s El Pais and the US’ Fox News among others. Al-Fayez, who lives in London, and her daughter Princess Sahar (42) claim that Sahar and her sisters Maha (41), Hala (39) and Jawaher (38) have been trapped in their royal compound in Jeddah for the past 13 years, unable to leave without armed guards and watched over at all times.