If Khashoggi’s disappearance shocked Westerners, they were simply not paying close attention to events in the kingdom, and the lengths to which the crown prince has been willing to go to quash dissent, say seasoned Saudi human rights advocates.

In an initial wave of executions after Mohammed’s abrupt installation as the immediate heir to his father, King Salman, followed by waves of arrests over the past year, he has been ruthless in asserting power. Saudi authorities have spread fear by detaining billionaires and grass-roots activists alike, showing that no one is untouchable. And they have worked to ensure that the arrests are hardly discussed, threatening the relatives of those arrested and forcing them to sign pledges of silence, and holding trials in secret, the rights advocates say.

This style of governance has occasionally made for odd spectacle. A few months ago, when a prominent women’s rights advocate was arrested at her home, the authorities surrounded it with so many klieg lights and armed men that residents thought it was a film shoot, according to Yahya Assiri, a London-based Saudi human rights activist. When people wandered out to see what was happening, they were rounded up and told never to speak of what they had seen, he said. ....

In November, Mohammed ordered the arrest of hundreds of members of the royal family and the business elite, imprisoning them in the opulent Ritz-Carlton hotel. Many would later allege physical abuse and the death of at least one person under torture. The palace said they were corrupt, and most were eventually released after giving up substantial portions of their fortunes.

Last spring, as the world waited for Saudi women to climb into their cars as drivers, prominent women who for years had campaigned for the right to drive were quietly arrested and imprisoned.

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