In addition to Hathloul, the detainees include prominent women's rights activists Aziza al-Yousef, Eman al-Nafjan, Nouf Abdelaziz, Samar Badawi and Hatoon al-Fassi. Riyadh previously denied allegations of torture in a statement to CNN following the initial Human Rights Watch report in November. Leading Saudi activist Hala al-Dosari told CNN that Saudis have been "emboldened" to speak out against the crackdown on human rights since Khashoggi's murder. The chorus of concern over the Kingdom's alleged human rights abuses is also growing in the West. For Loujain, she prefers to stay quiet about this, and her family is quiet about it, because they also don't understand what happened," said Saudi human rights activist Yahya Assiri.

Source: CNN January 08, 2019 06:33 UTC