NEOM and Forced Displacement: Abdulilah Al-Huwaiti Condemned to 100 Years for Standing His Ground
Among the most deliberately buried and ignored cases is the forced displacement of the Al-Huwaitat tribe in north-western Arabia, carried out to impose the NEOM project by force, with no regard for people, land, or the historical rights of its original inhabitants. What has happened—and continues to happen—is neither “development” nor “the future,” but a systematic process of uprooting an indigenous community, accompanied by security repression, judicial persecution, and long-term retaliatory punishments.
At the center of this crime stands the case of Abdulilah Rashid Ibrahim Al-Huwaiti, a member of the tribe who chose to hold on to his natural right to remain in his home and refused to comply with forced eviction orders. This refusal—supposed to be a lawful act in any system that respects the rule of law—was turned by the Saudi system into a “crime” punished with the harshest possible sentence.
Abdulilah Al-Huwaiti is currently detained after the Specialized Criminal Court—widely known for its role as an instrument of political repression—sentenced him to 50 years in prison, followed by 50 years of travel ban, amounting to 100 years of effective punishment, solely because he refused to leave his home and stood with his family against forced displacement.
The authorities did not stop at this retaliatory ruling. The case was marked by serious violations, including arbitrary detention, barring observers from attending court sessions, and the complete absence of fair-trial guarantees. The judiciary was transformed into a tool to terrorize an entire community and to deliver a clear message to anyone considering resistance: refusal will be crushed.
In August 2022, the Specialized Criminal Court of Appeal upheld these sentences against Abdulilah Rashid Al-Huwaiti and Abdullah Dakhil Allah Al-Huwaiti, confirming that the punishment was not individual, but part of a broader policy of collective punishment targeting all those who supported their families’ refusal to vacate their homes for the NEOM project. This case is not about “security” or “law,” but about revenge against indigenous residents who dared to say no.
What is happening to Abdulilah Al-Huwaiti is a stark example of how NEOM is being implemented: removing people before land, silencing voices before drawing plans, and constructing a propaganda city on the ruins of human rights. These rulings cannot be separated from a wider context of repression that treats any insistence on rights as a threat that must be eliminated.
Remembering the case of Abdulilah Rashid Al-Huwaiti is not merely recalling the name of a detainee; it is exposing an ongoing crime and demanding an end to the use of the judiciary as a weapon, and to policies of forced displacement and collective punishment. Justice does not expire. And a hundred years of repression will not change one fact: the land belongs to its people, and refusing injustice is not a crime.
