Saad al-Jabri, who was a security adviser at the Saudi Interior Ministry and exiled from his country after being accused of corruption, has filed a lawsuit in the US • According to him, Ben Salman seeks to silence him

• Saad al-Jabri on a visit to Boston

  Photo: 

  Reuters

A senior Saudi intelligence official has accused the kingdom's heir, Muhammad bin Salman, of sending a squad of agents to Canada to eliminate him, the New York Times reported last night (Thursday). 

The indictment comes as part of a lawsuit filed in federal court in the United States yesterday by a former senior official. Saad al-Jabri was a former adviser to the Ministry of Internal Security and assisted the ousted heir to the throne, Prince Muhammad bin Naif. In May 2017 he fled the kingdom after being accused of corruption and theft of public funds. 

Al-Jabri now accuses Ben Salman of seeking to silence or eliminate him in order to prevent him from undermining his relations with the United States and the Trump administration. 

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This is the first time a senior Saudi official has publicly accused the regent, the de facto ruler of the kingdom, of ordering an assassination operation to silence criticism against him. As you may recall, US intelligence agencies have estimated that Ben Salman has already ordered the assassination of Saudi adviser and journalist Jamal Hashukaji at the consulate in Istanbul.  

Al-Jabri is currently living in exile in Toronto when a few months ago Ben Salman tried to force him to return to the country. Authorities in the country detained his brother and two sons for questioning. Following this, family members and officials in the United States claimed that it was in fact taking hostages in order to put pressure on al-Jabri to return to his country and stand trial.  

The lawsuit itself, published in the New York Times, states that Saudi agents tried to harm al-Jabari in Canada, just two weeks after another cell killed journalist Hashukaji in Istanbul and killed him. The lawsuit, however, reportedly contains little evidence to support the claim and has not yet been verified.