Saudi forces have ‘license to kill’ in expropriations to build futuristic city in the desert

Saudi authorities allowed the use of lethal force to clear space for a futuristic city in the desert, which is being built by dozens of Western companies, a former intelligence officer told the BBC.

Colonel Rabih Alenezi says he was ordered to evict residents from a village in order to pave the way for the construction of The Line, part of the futuristic city of Neom project.

One of them was subsequently shot and killed for protesting against the eviction.

The Saudi Arabian government and Neom administration declined to comment.

Neom, Saudi Arabia’s US$500 billion (R$2.5 trillion) ecological region, is part of the Saudi Vision 2030 strategic plan to diversify the kingdom’s economy and reduce dependence on oil.

The project’s flagship, The Line, was presented as a car-free city, just 200m wide and 170km long — although only 2.4km of the project is expected to be completed by 2030.

Dozens of global companies, several of them British, are involved in the construction of Neom.

The area where Neom is being built has been described as a perfect “blank canvas” by Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. But more than 6,000 people have been displaced by the project, according to its government — and the UK-based human rights group ALQST estimates that number to be even higher.

The BBC analyzed satellite images of three of the demolished villages — al-Khuraybah, Sharma and Gayal. Homes, schools and hospitals were wiped off the map.

Colonel Alenezi, who went into exile in the UK last year, says the order to release the land he received was for al-Khuraybah, 4.5 kilometers south of The Line. The village was mainly inhabited by the Huwaitat tribe, who have lived in the Tabuk region, in the northwest of the country, for generations.

According to him, the April 2020 order stated that [a tribo] Huwaitat was made up of “many rebels” — and that “whoever continues to resist [à desocupação] should be killed, which is why he authorized the use of lethal force against anyone who remained in the houses”.

He dodged the mission for medical reasons he invented, he told the BBC, but it went ahead anyway.

Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti refused to allow a land registration commission to evaluate his property — and was shot dead by Saudi authorities a day later, during the mission to clear the land. He had already posted several videos on social media protesting the evictions.

A statement issued by the Saudi state security department alleged at the time that al-Huwaiti had fired at security forces, who were forced to retaliate. Human rights organizations and the UN said he was killed simply for resisting eviction.

The BBC was unable to independently verify Colonel Alenezi’s comments about lethal force.

But a source familiar with the workings of the Saudi intelligence directorate told us that the colonel’s testimony — both in terms of how the order to clear the land was communicated and in terms of what he said — was in line with what they knew about such missions more broadly. They also said that the colonel’s hierarchical level would have been appropriate to lead the mission.

At least 47 other residents were detained after resisting the evictions, many of whom were prosecuted on terrorism-related charges, according to the UN and ALQST. Of these, 40 remain in detention, five of whom are on death row, says ALQST.

Several were arrested for simply publicly mourning al-Huwaiti’s death on social media, the organization added.

Saudi authorities say compensation was offered to those who had to move because of The Line. But the amounts paid were much lower than the promised amount, according to ALQST.

According to Colonel Alenezi, “[Neom] is the central element of Mohamed Bin Salman’s ideas. That is why he was so brutal in dealing with the Huwaitat.”

A senior executive who was part of the Neom ski project told the BBC he heard about the murder of Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti a few weeks before he left his home country of the US to take up the role in 2020. Andy Wirth says he asked repeatedly told his employers about the eviction actions, but was not satisfied with the responses.

“It just smelled like something terrible [que] had been imposed on these people… You don’t step on their throats with the heels of your boots in order to advance”, he states.

Wirth left the project less than a year after joining it, disillusioned with his management.

A chief executive of a British desalination company who pulled out of a $100 million project for The Line in 2022 is also highly critical.

“It might be good for some high-tech people living in that area, but what about the rest?” asks Malcolm Aw, CEO of Solar Water PLC.

Local people should be seen as a valuable asset, he adds, given their understanding of the region.

“You must seek this advice to improve, create, recreate, without removing it.”

Displaced residents were extremely reluctant to comment, fearing that speaking to foreign media could put their detained family members at even more risk.

But we spoke to those who have been evicted elsewhere because of another Vision 2030 project. More than a million people have been displaced because of the Jeddah Central project in the city of the same name — which is expected to include an opera house, a sports and luxury residential and commercial units.

Nader Hijazi [nome fictício] grew up in Aziziyah — one of around 63 neighborhoods affected by the demolitions. His father’s house was destroyed in 2021, and he received less than a month’s notice.

Hijazi says the photos he saw of his old neighborhood were shocking — he said they evoked a war zone.

“They are waging a war on people, a war on our identities.”

Saudi activists told the BBC about two individuals arrested last year in connection with the Jeddah demolitions — one for physically resisting eviction, and the other for posting photos of anti-demolition graffiti on social media.

And a relative of a detainee at Dhahban Central Prison in Jeddah said he had heard reports of 15 more people being detained there — allegedly for organizing a farewell meeting in one of the neighborhoods that was to be demolished. The difficulty of contacting those inside Saudi prisons means we are unable to verify this.

ALQST interviewed 35 people evicted from neighborhoods in Jeddah. Of these, none claimed to have received compensation, or sufficient prior notice, as required by local legislation, and more than half claimed to have been forced to leave their homes under threat of arrest.

Colonel Alenezi is now based in the UK but still fears for his safety. He said an intelligence officer told him he would be offered $5 million to attend a meeting at the Saudi embassy in London with the Saudi interior minister. He refused. We presented this allegation to the Saudi government, but they did not respond.

But Colonel Alenezi does not regret his decision to disobey orders regarding the futuristic city of Saudi Arabia.

“Mohamed Bin Salman will not allow anything to stand in the way of building Neom… I began to become more concerned about what I might be asked to do to my own people.”

*Additional reporting by Erwan Rivault.