Iran Press/Middle East: Amid ongoing international scrutiny of the Saudi kingdom’s human rights record specially violation against journalists and after savage killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in last year October, global media watchdog RSF said in a statement that Yemeni Marwan al-Muraisy has been missing since June 2018, and Jordanian Abdel Rahman Farhaneh, who had worked for Qatari-owned Al Jazeera television network, disappeared in February.
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The Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.
Muraisy’s wife tweeted last week that she had received a brief phone call from him, the first since his disappearance, confirming he was still alive. She said she hoped that she could visit him and that he would be released soon.
RSF said the family of Farhaneh, who is in his 60s and had been based in the eastern city of Dammam for more than 30 years, learned that the Saudi authorities had informed the Jordanian embassy he would be released soon.
It is unclear where the men are being held, the statement added.
Riyadh has come under increasing global scrutiny over its human rights record since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate and the detention of around a dozen women’s rights activists.
A bipartisan chorus of US lawmakers has called on the White House to harden its stance toward Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed by Saudi agents in a move widely seen as an attempt to stifle dissent.
A CIA assessment has blamed the crown prince for ordering the killing. 213/205
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