The last time Mira Lozi spoke to her husband, Rami Naimi, as a free man was nine years ago, as he was wrapping up a trip to Australia.
"He was extremely happy; he was on a high. Then he just disappeared," Ms Lozi said as she fought back tears. "Our life [has been] completely in a shambles since then."
It was November 2017, and Mr Naimi had been travelling with his father Ali al-Naimi, a former Saudi Arabian oil minister and head of the state oil company, Aramco, who was doing a book tour in Australia after releasing his memoir.
For two decades, Mr Naimi senior was responsible for the policy of the world's largest oil exporter, and was often lauded as the "oil king".
His son was an international businessman and father-of-three, who had settled in London with his family and become a UK resident.
After the book tour, Mr Naimi, then 51, departed Sydney to return home, but never made it to Heathrow Airport.
It took several weeks for his wife to start to piece together what happened after he boarded that flight. She described what she managed to find out as a "horror story".
Ms Lozi said during a routine transit through Dubai Airport, her husband was stopped by border officials, driven to the neighbouring emirate of Abu Dhabi, then flown by private jet to the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.
He was then detained at the five-star Ritz-Carlton Hotel during the infamous round-up of 400 of the kingdom's powerful people in a so-called anti-corruption sweep, ordered by Mohammed bin Salman, who had become Saudi Arabia's crown prince — the country's most powerful political role — earlier that year.
The luxury hotel in Riyadh has gained a notorious reputation at the time for the torture and interrogations that took place there.
"The biggest question. Why? Maybe a proxy for his dad, maybe a mis-identification; we have absolutely no idea why Rami was targeted," Ms Lozi said.
"There was the crackdown and he got taken a few days later, but why would he be part of it, if it was anti-corruption? He's not corrupted.
"My husband is not a politician, not a human rights [activist]; he was just an ordinary businessman coming back from Australia."
Claims of interrogation and torture inside five-star hotel
Mr Naimi's family claims he was imprisoned, interrogated, electrocuted and waterboarded by Saudi operatives inside the hotel for the next two months, then released but not allowed to leave the kingdom.
"I was 12 years old and I'm sure you can imagine what it's like to know those kind of things at 12 years old. You have to grow up very quickly," Rami's son Ali Naimi, now aged 21, said.
"It really is something out of a movie. It's shocking and we just want to end this nightmare. It's time to bring my father home."
Over the next nine years, Mr Naimi's loved ones say he has been imprisoned twice, forced to hand over his life savings, tried in secret, and constantly watched by authorities.
Any phone calls they have had with him have been short and monitored.
They say they were advised to keep the ongoing ordeal under the radar to maximise their chances of securing his freedom thorough private and diplomatic channels.
But with no progress, they decided to go public in London this week, with a media and social media campaign alongside their legal team, led by high-profile human rights barrister Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC.
"We simply don't know why Rami was taken, and from 2017 until early 2025 there were no charges whatsoever, no due process, nothing, so this was a completely off grid, non rule-of-law compliant kidnapping," Ms Gallagher said.
"What we can say is Rami's been held for nine years unfairly, unlawfully, and that the charges which have resulted have been unfair, unlawful, in violation of international law."
Charged after seven years
Last year, Saudi officials charged Mr Naimi with exploiting his father's official influence. It was alleged that, acting as agent for a US company in the kingdom, he helped the company secure a contract with Aramco.
It is a charge Mr Naimi strenuously denied. He was tried in a closed court and sentenced to six years behind bars, but has so far been allowed to stay out of prison wearing an electronic tag.
He is living with his father who is now in his 90s, seriously ill and bed-bound. Mr Naimi was also accused of following social media accounts "hostile" to Saudi Arabia and attempting to leave the kingdom without permission.
Those charges are still before the courts.
"He's an honest man and all these allegations against him are completely trumped up and false," Ali said.
"We come from a hard-working background, and he's just an ordinary businessman; he's not part of the Saudi elite, he was not an activist, he's not a politician, and he shouldn't be held against his will just because of who his father is.
"But my grandfather was very respected during his time as minister and as the head of Aramco … we know that he's also done nothing wrong."
The family are concerned that Saudi Arabia, which was long among the world's most secretive countries, is now positioning itself as a luxury tourism destination. They say it is not safe to travel there.
The Saudi Arabian government did not respond to the ABC's questions about Mr Naimi's case.
Speaking out
The decision to go public with the #BRINGRAMIHOME campaign was a difficult one for his loved ones, but they decided it was time after suffering another blow two months ago, when Ms Lozi was diagnosed with cancer.
"I never wanted to launch this campaign, but I'm doing this as a last resort because after nine years of trying quietly to bring my husband home he is still being held against his own will," she said.
"I guess now that I got diagnosed with cancer, I mean, there's not much to lose, right? My kids need their father back … and the world needs to know what happened to Rami. Enough is enough."
They decided not tell Mr Naimi, now 60, about the campaign in case doing so put him in more danger.
"No family should go through this, and any family making a decision like this has got to be supported by their government," Ms Gallagher said.
Mr Naimi is not a British national so he does not qualify for consular assistance from the UK's Foreign Office.
However, Ms Gallagher said the government should "show leadership" on this case because Mr Naimi's wife and three children are British, and London is an international city.
The human rights lawyer has requested meetings with new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband in the hope they will put pressure on Saudi Arabia to send Mr Naimi home.
"It's entirely a political decision to support a British family in this situation," she said.
"We've seen other families in that situation helped, for example, the Hamas hostages were British family members, but those detained were not British. So they've helped in other situations. Why not here?"
The family's local MP, Joe Powell, has said he would do whatever he could to help.
"I look forward to working with the government to resolve this issue quickly and bring Rami home," he wrote in a social media post after meeting with the Naimi family.
Ms Gallagher's team is also lobbying officials in Malta where he has citizenship, the US where he did business, the European Union, and the United Nations.
A spokesperson for the EU told the ABC its diplomats in Riyadh, London and Brussels had been following Mr Naimi's case and had made contact with his lawyers as well as Maltese authorities.
The spokesperson added that the EU, "underlines the importance of procedural fairness, transparency, and respect for applicable international obligations".
The UN Human Rights office said it was "aware of" Mr Naimi's case, and that "reports of such cases in the region" had been brought to its attention in the past.
