{"id":1555,"date":"2018-01-07T16:54:51","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T16:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/?p=1555"},"modified":"2018-01-07T17:07:22","modified_gmt":"2018-01-07T17:07:22","slug":"1555","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/2018\/01\/07\/1555\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Saudi princes held for staging protest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"popPara\">RIYADH, Jan 7: \u00a0Eleven Saudi princes face trials in the kingdom after being arrested for a protest against the end of state subsidies for their utility bills, the attorney general said on Sunday.<br \/>\nThe princes were detained after gathering outside a palace in Riyadh on Thursday to demonstrate against a government decision to stop paying the water and electricity bills of royals.<br \/>\nThey also demanded compensation for a death sentence issued against one of their cousins, convicted of murder and executed in 2016, attorney general Saud al-Mojeb said.<br \/>\n&#8220;A group of 11 princes staged a sit in at the historic Qasr Al-Hokm palace on Thursday&#8230; objecting a recent royal order that halted payments by the state to members of the royal family to cover their electricity and water utility bills,&#8221; Mojeb said in a statement issued by the information ministry.<br \/>\n&#8220;Despite being informed that their demands are not lawful, the 11 princes refused to leave the area, disrupting public peace and order,&#8221; Mojeb said.<br \/>\nThe 11 have been charged on &#8220;a number of counts&#8221; and are being held at the maximum security Al-Hayer prison, south of Riyadh, according to the statement.<br \/>\nThe news comes amid a string of austerity measures implemented by the government, as Saudi Arabia pushes to diversify its oil-dependent economy amid massive budget deficits triggered by the 2014 drop in global oil prices.<br \/>\nThe measures have been linked to rising tension within the royal Al-Saud family which counts thousands of members &#8212; only a handful of whom wield direct influence over the kingdom.<br \/>\nThe economic overhaul has been linked to the arrest of more than 200 princes in an anti-corruption purge in November spearheaded by powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king&#8217;s son and heir to the throne.<br \/>\nMost of those detained were held at the palatial Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, which has turned into a luxury prison. Some have since reached settlements with the government.<br \/>\nOn January 1, Saudi Arabia imposed a five percent value-added tax on most goods and services, ending its decades-long tax-free policy.<br \/>\nKing Salman on Saturday announced a string of benefits for Saudi citizens, particularly military personnel and public servants, to &#8220;soften the impact of the economic reforms&#8221;. (RSS\/AFP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; RIYADH, Jan 7: \u00a0Eleven Saudi princes face trials in the kingdom after being arrested for a protest against the end of state subsidies for their utility bills, the attorney general said on Sunday. The princes were detained after gathering outside a palace in Riyadh on Thursday to demonstrate against a government decision to stop [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1561,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions\/1561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/durbinnepal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}