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Former Saudi official: Ben Salman proposed to eliminate his uncle King Abdullah
In an interview with CBS, former intelligence official Saad al-Jabri claimed that the regent had in 2014 made a proposal to assassinate the aging king with a poisoned ring from Russia to make way for his father Salman.
"He is a murderer, a psychopath, a threat to the world," the Canadian exile warned in Canada, claiming that a Saudi team was sent to eliminate him in 2018.
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Saudi Arabia
Muhammad bin Salman
News agencies
Wednesday, 27 October 2021, 16:24
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Saudi Arabia's heir has suggested using a "poisoned ring" to kill King Abdullah, his uncle - a former Saudi intelligence official claims. In an interview with CBS, Saad al-Jabri said that Muhammad bin Salman told his cousin in 2014 that he wanted to do so in order to pave the way for his father to the throne. At that time there were tensions within the Saud family over the question of the heir of the sick King Abdullah, who died a year later.
According to the former Saudi official, Ben Salman hinted to his cousin Prince Muhammad bin Naif, the then interior minister, that he would be able to arrange for the assassination of the king, half-brother of his father Salman. "He told him, 'I want to eliminate King Abdullah. I will get a poison ring from Russia. All I have to do is shake his hand and he is done,'" Jabri quoted Ben Salman as saying. "Even if he just bragged, he said it and we took it seriously."
Jabri said the issue was resolved inside the royal court,But he added that the meeting was secretly filmed and that he knows where two copies of the recording are.
After the death of King Abdullah in 2015 at the age of 90, his successor King Salman appointed Muhammad bin Naif as regent until he was deposed two years later by his son, Muhammad.
He was also removed from his post as interior minister, and according to various reports was held under house arrest before being arrested last year on charges of a series of unclear offenses.
Denies that he was involved in the assassination of Hashukaji.
Ben Salman (Photo: Reuters)
Jabri fled to Canada after ousting Ben Naif. He said in an interview that he had been warned by a member of the Middle East State Intelligence Service that Muhammad bin Salman was about to send a special force to assassinate him in October 2018, just days after Saudi agents murdered exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Hashukaji in Turkey.
He claimed a six-man crew landed at Ottawa airport, but was deported after border control authorities found he was carrying "suspicious DNA testing equipment" with him. Last year, Jabari accused the regent of attempted murder in a civil lawsuit he filed in a federal court in the United States.
Ben Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, has denied the allegations made by a former intelligence official. The Saudi regent even denies any involvement in Hashukaji's assassination at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, despite estimates by US intelligence agencies that he gave the green light to the operation.
During his interview for CBS's 60 Minutes, Jabari warned that the regent was a "psychopath and murderer," possessing "infinite resources" and posing a "threat to his people, the United States and the world."
Salman, the father of Muhammad and his half-brother, inherited it.
Abdullah King of Saudi Arabia (Photo: AP)
In a statement sent to CBS, the Saudi embassy in Washington called Jabari a "disgraced former government official, with a long history of fabricating and creating distractions to hide his multibillion-dollar financial crimes in order to provide a showy lifestyle for him and his family."
Authorities in Saudi Arabia accuse Jabari of corruption offenses, and a Canadian judge froze his assets on the grounds that there was "overwhelming evidence of fraud."
He denies stealing public money, and claims his former employers will generously reward him.
In March last year, Saudi authorities arrested one of Jabari's sons, Omar, and his daughter Sarah on suspicion of financial offenses, and human rights organizations said their arrest was part of an attempt to force their father to return to the kingdom.
Last November, two months after their father filed a lawsuit against the regent, the brothers were sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of money laundering and "attempting to flee" the country.
They denied the allegations, but an appeals court upheld their sentence in a secret hearing in which they were not present at all.
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