Former Saudi spymaster seeks U.S. help for his jailed children

A former top Saudi intelligence official who is living in exile accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of targeting him, and made an unprecedented public plea to the Biden administration to help obtain the release of his children jailed in Saudi Arabia.

Saad al-Jabri was long an aide to another Saudi royal, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, whom bin Salman, or MbS, ousted as heir to the throne in a 2017 palace coup.

MbS is now de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter and a U.S. ally.

In August 2019, Jabri, who now lives in Canada, filed a 107-page lawsuit in a U.S. court alleging that the crown prince dispatched a hit squad to kill him in October 2018 and that Canadian authorities foiled the attempt.

Last year, a Saudi court jailed two of Saad al-Jabri’s adult children for money laundering and conspiracy to escape the kingdom unlawfully, charges they deny.

According to him, “I have to speak out. I am appealing to the American people and to the American administration to help me to release those children and to restore their life.”

The crown prince’s lawyers have rejected Jabri’s allegations and said MbS has legal immunity in the United States as a foreign head of state.

Last year, MbS’s lawyer, Michael Kellogg, dismissed the allegations, describing them as steeped in drama.

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Esther/Reuters