Mohammed bin Salman had orchestrated an tried extrajudicial killing, the ex-spy has claimed (File)
Washington:
A former senior Saudi intelligence official stated in a US lawsuit Thursday that the nation’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tried to have him assassinated in 2018, simply weeks after dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Turkey.
Saad Aljabri stated Prince Mohammed despatched a “hit squad” to Canada, the place he lives in exile, to kill and dismember him in the identical means that Khashoggi was murdered allegedly by the prince’s brokers in Istanbul in October 2018.
“To fulfil his murderous need, Defendant bin Salman has personally orchestrated an tried extrajudicial killing of Dr. Saad, an try that is still ongoing to today,” Aljabri charged within the lawsuit filed in federal court docket in Washington.
Aljabri stated that Prince Mohammed needs him useless as a result of he’s near rival prince and former Saudi safety chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and since he has intimate information of Prince Mohammed’s actions that may bitter the shut relationship between Washington and Riyadh.
“Dr. Saad is uniquely positioned to existentially threaten Defendant bin Salman’s standing with the US authorities. That’s the reason Defendant bin Salman needs him useless,” the swimsuit stated.
Aljabri was already overseas in June 2017 when Prince Mohammed seized energy within the palace, eradicating Mohammed bin Nayef as crown prince and inserting him underneath home arrest.
After his kids in Riyadh had been hit with journey restrictions, Aljabri refused entreaties to return, fearing he would meet the identical destiny as Prince Nayef, and moved to Canada the place a son lives.
Since then Riyadh tried unsuccessfully to make use of Interpol to achieve custody of him. And he says they despatched a workforce of brokers to the USA to trace him down.
13 days after Khashoggi’s homicide on 2 October 2018, a workforce from what Aljabri referred to as within the lawsuit Prince Mohammed’s “private mercenary group, the Tiger Squad,” arrived in Canada.
The workforce, he claimed, included forensic specialists and tools just like the group that dismembered Khashoggi’s physique, which was by no means discovered.
He stated Canadian safety turned suspicious and disrupted the plot, however that efforts to kill him proceed, and that Prince Mohammed obtained a spiritual fatwa, or command, for his loss of life from clerics.
In March his two kids in Saudi Arabia had been taken away and have not been heard from.
The swimsuit towards Prince Mohammed plus 12 named and one other 11 unidentified folks was filed as a declare of tried extrajudicial killing underneath the Torture Sufferer Safety Act.
Aljabri requested the court docket for unspecified damages for “extreme emotional misery,” nervousness and hypertension, and different illnesses, and punitive damages towards the defendants as nicely.
He additionally requested the court docket to declare that the defendants violated the “legislation of countries” underneath the Alien Tort Statute.
“This court docket can start the method of holding defendant bin Salman and his brokers accountable for his or her actions,” the swimsuit stated.
Contacted by AFP, the Saudi Embassy in Washington indicated it didn’t have a touch upon the swimsuit for the time being.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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