This is Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of one of the most powerful and influential dynasties in the world.
Despite making some reforms in the country and claiming openness and modernity, he uses coercion and deadly means to silence dissidents and impose fear, from placing his own mother under house arrest and detaining a brother of the king, a former crown prince and a cousin, to executing journalists and kidnapping other countries’ leaders.
This is the cruel rise, and the many crimes of Mohammed bin Salman.
In December 2014, the world was awaiting the death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Arabia’s third Al Saud dynasty. He slowly faded away in a hospital bed in a desert outside Riyadh.
His father, Abdulaziz, had founded the kingdom of Arabia, which he conquered on camelback. Saudi Arabia itself was only eighty-three years old. The ninety-year-old king was older.
For a long time, Saudi Arabia was sparsely populated with few connections to the rest of the world, other than the pilgrims who came in masses to visit Mecca and Medina, the two Islamic holy cities.
By the time King Abdullah reached his forties, Saudi Arabia was witnessing some significant change. An oil ocean discovered under its desert was providing so much money that the nation’s mud walls were turned into modern skyscrapers and luxurious malls. Despite this change Saudi Arabia was still extremely conservative.
Abdullah assumed the throne in 2005, but ruling the kingdom presented a heavy burden for him. He had spent his life smoking and eating fancy meals, and he developed diabetes and heart disease. His health started drastically deteriorating after he underwent several surgeries in 2010.
Abdullah’s brother was Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and unlike all other sons of King Abdulaziz, who amassed fortunes through power and coercion, Salman did not care that much about wealth. He spent most of his royal money on his children and wives. Salman had six sons with his first wife And he also had six sons with his second wife. The first one, Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, was born in 1985.
In January 2015, King Abdullah died of cancer, and Salman ascended the throne. Salman had not been close to his first six sons, and it was Mohammed who became the crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.
And in just three years MBS was able to silence nearly all voices of dissent and anyone who formed a threat to his throne.
Over 20 princes, officials and army officers had been arrested in an attempt from MBS to tighten his grip on the throne even further, including Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, a brother of King Salman, the monarch's nephew Prince Mohammed bin Nayef who were accused of treason and taken from their homes by black-clad royal guards.
The Saudi royal court has accused the two men, once potential contenders for the throne, of "plotting a coup to unseat the king and crown prince".
The former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef who is also a former interior minister and long-time American favorite was arrested as well,.
But it didn’t stop there, MBS led crackdowns on clerics, bloggers, journalists and women’s rights activists.
00:00 - Intro
00:47 - The King Has Died
04:07 - Public Execution (Nimr Al Nimr)
05:33 - Royal Kidnapping (Saad Hariri)
08:10 - The Dissident (Jamal Khashoggi)
14:03 - Life Goes On
This Mohammed Bin Salman documentary is based on Blood and Oil: Mohammed Bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power book by Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck and the dissident documentary. saudi arabian airlines