Opinion | The Saudi Regime’s Other Victims

“Every time my doorbell rings, I think someone has come to arrest me,” Fahad said.

Dhahban Central Prison opened a few weeks after our visit, and many of the kingdom’s highest-profile detainees — including Mr. Badawi and his former lawyer, Waleed Abu al-Khair — were transferred there. Four months later, the arrest Fahad had been dreading finally came, and he was jailed at Dhahban, too. He is now serving a five-year prison term for “inciting hostility against the state” via tweets. His sentence includes a 10-year travel ban, which will begin following his release, as well as a lifelong writing ban.

The killing of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 has led to intensifying international scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince and day-to-day ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, and of his actions abroad. Though President Trump has stood by the crown prince, the Senate voted in November to advance a bill that would end American support for his military campaign in Yemen. Last week, Senate leaders demanded a briefing from the C.I.A. director, Gina Haspel, on the evidence surrounding Mr. Khashoggi’s murder; after meeting with Ms. Haspel, senior senators told reporters they were convinced that Prince Mohammed had ordered the killing.