00:02Meera Lozi's husband, Rami Naimi, was last a free man nine years ago when he was wrapping
00:08up a trip to Australia.
00:10He was extremely happy, he was on a high and then he just disappeared.
00:14And our life got completely in chambers since then.
00:17The father of three, who's the son of Ali Al Naimi, a former Saudi Arabian oil minister
00:22and head of the state oil company Aramco, left Sydney Airport on November 3, 2017, bound
00:30for his home in London.
00:31During a stopover in Dubai, he was arrested, then flown to the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh,
00:38where his family says he was detained at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, during the infamous round-up
00:44of hundreds of the kingdom's powerful people in a so-called anti-corruption sweep, ordered
00:50by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
00:52That's been the biggest question, why?
00:55Maybe a proxy for his dad, maybe a misidentification.
00:58We have absolutely no idea.
01:00My husband is not a politician, not a human right, not a, I mean, he was just an ordinary
01:06businessman coming back from Australia.
01:08His family claims he was imprisoned, interrogated and tortured by Saudi operatives inside the
01:14luxury hotel.
01:15After three weeks, they started allowing them to have phone calls, and it was a 30-second
01:23phone call.
01:24It was really difficult between me and the kids.
01:26We had to take turns, and then they'd cut the line.
01:30And yeah, it was always the same sentence in Arabic.
01:34He had to repeat, I'm OK, I'm well-treated, I'm OK, I'm well-treated.
01:37In the nine years since, Rami's family says he's been in custody twice, made to hand over
01:43his life savings, banned from leaving the kingdom, tried in secret and closely monitored.
01:49From 2017 until early 2025, there were no charges whatsoever, no due process, nothing.
01:55So this was a completely off-grid, non-rule-of-law compliant kidnapping.
02:01What we can say is he's been held for nine years unfairly, unlawfully, and that the charges
02:07which have resulted have been unfair, unlawful, in violation of international law.
02:10Last year, the Saudis charged him with exploiting his father's influence and following hostile
02:15social media accounts.
02:17He's an honest man.
02:19All these allegations against him are completely trumped up and false, and he doesn't deserve
02:23to be where he is today.
02:24The Saudi Arabian government did not respond to the ABC's questions about this case.
02:29Rami's loved ones were initially advised to stay silent, and he'd eventually be freed.
02:34But after nine years of failed, quiet diplomacy, they're speaking out.
02:40Meera was recently diagnosed with cancer, and she wants her husband home.
02:45There's not much to lose, right?
02:46My kids need their father back.
02:48They're pleading with Britain, where Rami has residency, the EU, the UN, and the US,
02:54to pressure Saudi Arabia to let him go.
02:58Mazowie Ford, ABC News, London.
03:04Oof-
03:05Wounds, London.
Comments