Dark side of Saudi Arabia’s $500bn futuristic NEOM megacity – from executions to dystopian surveillance state
SAUDI Arabia’s NEOM project has grabbed world’s attention but there’s a dark side behind the incredible images of the mega-city in the desert.
The $500 billion plans are the brain-child of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the effective ruler of the desert kingdom, and are aimed at ending its dependency on oil wealth.
Work has already begun on a mind-boggling 110-mile long sideways skyscraper dubbed The Line, the centrepiece of the project that's so far grabbed the world's attention.
Saudi officials hope the sci-fi city will help the Middle-Eastern nation diversify itself away from oil and spin offs include a winter sports resort as well as an artificial island
Not all Saudis are happy about the project, however, and there have been protests by members of tribes who have been evicted to make way for construction, which have been met with brutal force.
Three have been sentenced to death and are facing execution for their role in the protests, while others have been handed long prison sentences.
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United Nations human rights experts have urged Saudi Arabia to review the death sentences handed down to Shadli Ahmed Mahmoud al-Huwaiti, Ibrahim al-Huwaiti and Ataullah al-Huwaiti.
They are all members of the Huwaitat tribe and were charged with terrorism because of their resistance evictions from their land set aside for NEOM.
“Despite being charged with terrorism, they were reportedly arrested for resisting forced evictions in the name of the NEOM project and the construction of a 170km linear city called The Line,” said the UN.
The men reportedly sentenced to death on 5 August last year and their sentences were upheld on appeal on 23 January.
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“Under international law, states that have not yet abolished the death penalty may only impose it for the ‘most serious crimes’, involving intentional killing,” the experts said.
“We do not believe the actions in question meet this threshold.”
The UN said that three other members of the Huwaiti tribe were also sentenced to between 27 and 50 years in prison.
The experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the UN.
The tribespeople have complained the Saudi authorities’ efforts to drive them from their land have escalated.
This includes cutting water and electricity supplies, and deploying surveillance drones above residences,
Alya al-Huwaiti, a UK-based activist who is a member of the tribe, said she has been told drones are being flown regularly over Tabuk province.
Tribespeople believe their mobile phone and social media accounts are closely monitored.
“They are very terrified. Very, very terrified,” she said.
“They are being watched. So even if they write anything anonymously, they would be arrested."
Fears have also been raised that NEOM itself could turn into a dystopian “surveillance city” with the help of Chinese technology.
The idea is for NEOM to be a smart city where services including refuse collection, health, and train times are regulated by data from sources such as smartphones and surveillance technology.
Current smart cities use around 10 per of possible user data but NEOM will be enabled by Artificial Intelligence and use 90 per cent.
But the country’s poor human rights record does not bode well for safeguarding of individual privacy, said Vincent Mosco, an expert on surveillance.
“The surveillance concerns are justified. It is, in effect, a surveillance city,” said Mosco, professor emeritus at Queen's University, Canada.
Marwa Fatafta, a policy manager at Access Now, a Berlin-based digital rights organisation, echoed those fears.
"Because essentially they're built on an architecture that is fuelled by people's personal data,” he
“In a country like Saudi Arabia where there is no data protection or safeguards, no oversight, no accountability, no transparency, no separations of powers, and the fact that MBS (Mohammed bin Salman) is actually ruling the security agencies.
“It is a scary idea."
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