A British woman has revealed her and her family’s hellish ordeal after her husband was allegedly abducted and brutally tortured by Saudi Arabian authorities.
Businessman Rami Naimi was returning from a work trip to Australia with his father when his family claims he was abducted in Dubai in 2017.
The father of three, who is the son of former Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi, was detained again in 2022, held for two years and was last year sentenced to six years in prison following a secret trial.
His initial detention came during a purge of Saudi political, royal and business figures at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh in November 2017 as part of an apparent anti-corruption campaign.
Speaking out for the first time, Mr Naimi’s family – who on Tuesday launched a campaign to bring him home – say he has been the victim of horrific forms of torture, including electrocution and waterboarding.
His wife Mira Lozi, who is battling cancer, said during the launch in London that she has had to keep quiet since 2017 to secure her husband’s release, and described the last nine years as a ‘nightmare’.
Breaking her silence, she revealed how, following his 2017 abduction, her husband was blindfolded and forcibly taken by car to Abu Dhabi and then by private jet to Saudi Arabia, where he was held at the Ritz-Carlton and tortured, electrocuted, waterboarded and psychologically abused for three months.
Now, in an interview with the Daily Mail, Mrs Lozi has opened up about how she feared for her own life when her husband was first taken in 2017.
Rami Naimi poses with his wife Mira Lozi in this undated photograph. The couple’s world was turned upside down when Naimi was detained by Saudi Arabian authorities
Naimi pictured with his wife and children before his detention. His family have launched a campaign for his release
Mrs Lozi, who was living in Dubai at the time of her husband’s first detention, says: ‘I lived my life [feeling] terrified, looking over my shoulder. What’s going to happen next? Who’s behind me? You know, am I going to be taken? And for what? Absolutely nothing. We had no idea what was happening. We were just walking like ghosts.’
Such was the family’s fear that when Mr Naimi was released three months later and placed under house arrest – after being forced to sign a ‘settlement agreement’ pledging to surrender £200million – that they felt too unsafe to visit him.
‘We were terrified. We were very scared for our own safety. So we had to decide if it was safe enough to visit him’, says Mr Naimi’s son, Ali, who was just 12 years old at the time of his father’s detention.
‘It was…like my dad was still abducted,’ the now-21-year-old adds.
Ali also spoke about the emotional toll his father’s detention had on him at such a young age, describing how the ordeal forced him to grow up early.
‘I’m sure you can imagine how difficult it is for a 12-year-old to know these details about his family,’ he says.
‘I’ve been traumatised for my whole childhood. I basically lived a life without my father. I know more of my life without my father than I do with.’
The family were eventually able to visit Mr Naimi, but they say contact with him was limited after he was placed under electronic surveillance and banned from leaving Saudi Arabia.
They add that Mr Naimi was left with emotional scars from his experience.
‘He doesn’t want me to know these horrific details,’ Ali says: ‘And of course, he’s very traumatised.
‘He’s a different man from who he was before he was taken. So at some points, he would share details out of anger… he’s a very damaged person after what happened to him,’ he adds.
The family were forced to relive their nightmare in 2022, when Naimi disappeared once again for nearly two years.
‘He got a phone call, and they told him that there’s a problem with his ankle bracelet and that they’re going to come and fix it. And he disappeared,’ Mrs Lozi says.
During this time, he was subjected to further torture and emotional and psychological abuse.
Meanwhile, his family went through the agonising pain of not knowing if he was alive or dead.
Recalling those two difficult years, Ali says: ‘[It was] much worse, because I wasn’t 12 anymore. I was 17. I knew what was going on.
‘I knew the possibilities of his ill treatment. And I knew that this was going to be tough, and it was going to be a lot harder than it was when I was younger. And I was right.’
The family learned in 2024 that he was being held in Saudi’s notorious Al Ha’ir prison. He was released in March last year but has remained under house arrest, while his family continued to feel his absence.
‘I was traumatised, and I had to go through a lot without my father. And it wasn’t just me. My sisters had to go through the same,’ Ali says.
‘My sister graduated from university. I graduated from high school. All my friends were getting career help from their dads.
‘They were asking their dads. They looked up to their fathers, and they wanted to ask them about career advice and what [universities] to go to. So I was deprived of that.
‘And my eldest sister was deprived of her father at her wedding. She’s now having a baby.’
It was after his release in March 2025 that he learned of charges against him claiming he had ‘exploited’ his father’s official influence.
Mr Naimi also faced allegations that he acted as an agent for a US company in Saudi Arabia and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment after a secret trial.
He is now facing a second trial over his internet activity while being held at the Ritz-Carlton in 2017.
Mr Naimi has been accused of following social media accounts that are critical of Saudi Arabia, for which, if convicted, he faces up to 20 years behind bars.
He and his family deny the allegations and say the claims are unfair.
They are now calling for action from the UK, US and EU governments to ensure his release.
‘We want to see political pressure, and we want them to raise the question with Saudi at the highest level and to help secure our father’s release.
‘It’s a completely unfair issue. And it’s against the rule of law and international law. We would like governments and the EU and the US to hear our story and to help us bring Rami home,’ says Ali.
‘It could happen to any British family. And I think it’s, I mean, we are British, and I think it’s, you know, it should, I mean, my Prime Minister Andy Burnham should really put that on his highest priority, just to bring Rami back home and to do the correct thing,’ Mrs Lozi adds.
Naimi has been subjected to emotional and physical torture, his family claim
According to Mr Naimi’s family, he is unaware of their decision to go public about his ordeal, because their contact with him is so monitored.
Mrs Lozi says she spent years terrified to speak up over fears that it would compromise her husband’s release.
But now, she says she feels like she has no other choice.
‘The proceedings are just not going the way they should, and nobody is really paying attention or reading.
She adds that her ongoing battle with cancer also played a part in her decision to share her family’s story.
‘I don’t know how much I have left, you know. So I guess that was the cherry on top for my kids to get their father back.’
You must be logged in to post a comment Login