Over the course of July, 142 public employees were arrested on corruption charges. The Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) charged the arrested individuals with several charges including bribery, abuse of power, and financial misconduct. This is the latest step in the country’s controversial attempts to combat corruption.
Some context is important when discussing corruption within Saudi Arabia. Corruption is indeed an issue within the country. With the ruling family’s domination of Saudi politics as well as the vast wealth of the sovereign fund, corruption became an open secret within the country. Prince Bandar bin Sultan went so far as to defend the country’s corruption in an interview with PBS in 2001. In 2017, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, launched a massive anti-corruption campaign that ended with the arrest of many of the country’s elite. Though the Crown Prince insisted that the campaign was to combat corruption, it ensured complete domination of the country by the Crown Prince through the elimination of rivals and his consolidation of power.
The mass anti-corruption campaign does seem to have positively impacted perceptions of corruption in the country. Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index highlights the changes in perceived corruption of the public sector after the 2017-2019 anti-corruption campaign.
The massive campaign and changes in the perception of corruption may persuade one that the anti-corruption tactics of Saudi Arabia is a positive change, but this campaign highlights some of the issues plaguing the judicial system in Saudi Arabia and how the campaign against corruption has been nothing more than Machiavellian ploy by the Crown Prince to consolidate power. Those charged with corruption by Nazha face court hearings in a country that lacks a criminal code. Efforts to enact a penal code in the country have been long delayed and plagued with issues. Furthermore, corruption charges in Saudi Arabia are starkly different from other criminal proceedings as the burden of proof is placed solely with the defendant. This means that the defendant must prove their innocence rather than prosecutors having to prove the defendant’s guilt. This is a stark reversal of the international norms for burden of proof and only serves to increase the prosecution’s chances of winning the case despite having little evidence.
While corruption is a problem within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the means to combat this corruption are too extreme and violate defendants’ right to a fair trial. Any public official that finds themself in any sort of opposition to the Crown Prince may find themselves charged with corruption. Those charged then must defend themselves in a judicial system with no unified penal code against possibly baseless accusations from the prosecutors. In essence, corruption is the newest means of power consolidation within Saudi Arabia and many will have their right to a fair trial violated for opposing the Crown Prince.