al-qahtani questioned prince al—waleed via a video link.n was over, a royal visitor arrived. mohammed bin salman showed up minutes after we sat down with a big smile on his face, which led me to believe that he was watching the whole thing. i noticed four cameras in the corners of that suite. so i believe that he was watching the whole thing. after almost three months detention, prince al—waleed was released. another detainee was treated more harshly, according to mahmoud refaat, a lawyer who's worked for several princes. he's also a long—standing critic of the saudi regime. he says punishment was meted out to prince miteb bin abdullah, former commander of the national guard, and mohammad bin salman's cousin. he says family members told him what happened. a secret informant inside the kingdom has alleged to the bbc that the abuse didn't stop at torture. he says one man was beaten to death. we can't independently verify his story, but it tallies with at least two other accounts of what took place. using an encrypted messaging system, the sou

at least one person, general al-qahtani, died as a result of that abuse.r doctors at the hospital who treated him told us he had a broken neck and his body showed many signs of swelling and other forms of physical abuse, probably through torture. the ritz—carlton victims were all high profile saudis. it's alleged the attacks could only have been authorised at the highest level. saud al-qahtani wouldn't dare to take such steps into a plan of this magnitude without the record of mohammed bin salman, and he only reports to mohammed bin salman. in connection with a separate incident, a tweet that was posted in 2017 on saud al-qahtani's account, stated he's a loyal servant who follows orders from the top. the bbc asked the crown prince's office whether mohammed bin salman had ever sanctioned torture and killing. they said... the killing ofjamal khashoggi and these allegations have focused attention on the 33—year—old crown prince. so who exactly is mohammed bin salman? and how does a 30—something come to be running saudi arabia? we have become very good friends

al qahtani is a feared figure in saudi arabia he's ex-military and advisor to the royal court appointed by the crown prince they call m.b.'s muhammad bin salma he was responsible for directing the saudi troll army that went after the kingdom's critics online and reportedly spent so much time poring over twitter debates he was nicknamed mr hashtags last year al qahtani tweeted a warning to saudi dissidents telling them that using an alias on twitter would not be enough to hide their identity hinting that he had secret ways of finding them and just last month the new york times reported that saudi arabia had been better to spy inside twitter's operation to monitor accounts critical of riyadh accounts such as the one belonging to the late. i'll just. sort of comment this and then when mohammed bin selman took power the tunny became very important perhaps one of three key people surrounding the crown prince of his principle role was to steer the electronic army towards supporting muhammad in someone's decisions it also involved attacking critics he's not only implicated in official jews mur

crown prince mohammed bin salma as his boss conducted a charm offensive on the western news media al qahtani was ensuring the journalists back home told the line and the critics stayed silent he was reportedly fired over the murder but the chilling effect of his work remains our starting point this week israel. of all the two weeks the saudis assisted nothing happened and all kinds of explanations about what happened and who now is responsible. after the murder of jamal khashoggi those initial denials from riyadh undone by all the evidence the announcements from saudi arabia cuts against what should fester get say on its side this building and the ensuing geo political public relations disaster one might have thought that the saudi authorities dealing with the media would be on their best behavior at least for a while. the death of a saudi arabian journalist given all the dog the case of perfectly i'll just a blogger jailed earlier this year and his death after torture was revealed this past week could disprove riyadh's war against journalism and criticism within goes on. certainly the messa

was exposed and arrested is less clear however all roads would appear to lead to sowed qahtani al qahtani is a feared figure in saudi arabia he's ex-military and advisor to the royal court appointed by the crown prince they call m.b.'s muhammad bin salma he was responsible for directing the saudi troll army that went after the kingdom's critics online and reportedly spent so much time poring over twitter debates he was nicknamed mr hashtags last year al qahtani tweeted a warning to saudi dissidents telling them that using an alias on twitter would not be enough to hide their identity hinting that he had secret ways of finding them and just last month the new york times reported that saudi arabia had invented a spot inside twitter's operation to monitor accounts critical of riyadh accounts such as the one belonging to the late i'll just. and i was sort of comments and then when mohammed bin selman took power the tourney became very important perhaps one of three key people surrounding the crown prince of his principle role was to steer the electronic army toward supporting muhammad in some

ducted a charm offensive on the western news media al qahtani was ensuring the journalists back home told the line and the critics stayed silent he was reportedly fired over the murder but the chilling effect of his work remains our starting point this week israel. took all the two weeks the saudis insisted nothing happened and all kinds of explanations about what happened and now is responsible. after the murder of jamal khashoggi those initial denials from riyadh undone by all the evidence the announcements from saudi arabia cuts against what should fester get say from its side this building and the ensuing geo political public relations disaster one might have thought that the saudi authorities dealing with the media would be on their best behavior at least for a while. the death of a saudi arabian journalist given all the the case of put a key i'll just a blogger jailed earlier this year and his death after torture was revealed this past week could disprove that riyadh's war against journalism and criticism within goes on. certainly the message would appear to be that the saudi a

one of those alleged to have been involved is a man called saud al qahtani, the former media adviserce been demoted by the regime. but was this the first suspicious death he'd been implicated in? here's joelle naayem. in november 2017, the saudi elite was gripped by panic. the crown prince mohammed bin salman ordered more than 200 princes, businessmen and government officials to be detained at a luxury ritz—carlton hotel in riyadh. it was described as an anti—corruption drive. back then, mbs, as he is also known, was talked of almost as a saudi robin hood. the bbc interviewed journalist jamal khashoggi about the event. i think we necessarily shouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt. yes, we need to punish corruption, but it is being done by one—man rule. khashoggi's concerns tended to be supported by the allegations emerging from the ritz—carlton. allegations that detainees had not just been stripped of their wealth, some had also been tortured. a secret informant inside the kingdom tells bbc that khashoggi's murder was not the first killing to be carried out by people close to th

business with them now that list of seventeen names include a very close aide to the crown prince saud al qahtani as well as the consul general from in stumble of muhammad out of tabor so these names of similar or identical to the seventeen names that the saudis initially listed as being responsible for this killing certainly the state department has just had a briefing describing this as a very important first step the supposition being that they are going to be further steps to come possibly is this likely to satisfy congress or will they still want more well already there's been much rings from congress set this does not go far enough you have had several senators saying that imposing sanctions against people who are already in custody does not really fully convey the u.s. his displeasure now there are moves in congress for a number of sanctions against saudi arabia among them a very importantly is a call on president trump to suspend to go see a sions for a civilian nuclear agreement which has been ongoing between saudi arabia and the u.s. now this call is come from both republicans and democ