Saudi Arabia has over the past two weeks detained at least eight citizens critical of the kingdom, in what rights groups are calling an escalation in an already two-year-long crackdown on dissent. News of the arrests came in stark contrast with Saudi’s efforts to rebrand the nation as open to tourism and investments and as a critical U.S. ally in its confrontations with Iran. These efforts have also progressed despite the conclusion by U.S. intelligence that top Saudi leadership ordered and orchestrated the assassination of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi last year, alongside other diplomatic debacles such as the ongoing Saudi-led war in Yemen. Here’s a look at the major arrests and repression over the past two years. Plainclothes police took at least eight intellectuals, writers and entrepreneurs from their homes in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, and Jiddah, a port city along the Red Sea, between Nov. 16 and 21, […]