His Son Is Detained And His Life Is In Danger, Saudi Arabia's Former Intelligence Officer Asks The United States For Help

Spy illustration. (Unsplash/Tetiana SHYSHKINA)

JAKARTA - A former top Saudi Arabian intelligence official living in exile, accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday of targeting him, making an unprecedented public appeal to the Joe Biden Administration to help free his children imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.

Saad al-Jabri has long been an aide to another Saudi prince, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was ousted by bin Salman, or MBS, as heir to the throne in a 2017 palace coup. MBS is now Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler.

In August 2019, Jabri, who now lives in Canada, filed a 107-page lawsuit in a United States court alleging the crown prince sent an assassination squad to kill him in October 2018. Canadian authorities thwarted the attempt.

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

In his first interview since leaving the kingdom, Jabri said MBS "lacks empathy", calling the 36-year-old leader a threat to the people of Saudi Arabia, the United States and the rest of the world.

"I have to speak up. I beg the American people and the American government to help me free these children and restore their lives," an visibly emotional Jabri told CBS television's "60 Minutes".

The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington and the Saudi state media office CIC did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

Meanwhile, the Twitter account "60 Minutes" posted a statement from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington that said Jabri was a discredited former government official with a long history of fabricating.

Separately, the crown prince's lawyers have rejected Jabri's accusations and said Mohammed bin Salman has immunity from law in the United States as a foreign head of state. Last year, MBS's attorney, Michael Kellogg, dismissed the allegations, describing them as "full of drama."

Jabri's allegations come more than three years after Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi-born American who wrote an opinion column for the Washington Post critical of MBS, was assassinated by an operative said to be linked to the prince at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.

Saudi Arabia's government has denied the crown prince's involvement, but a US intelligence report concluded in February that it had approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi, although President Joe Biden's administration did not directly punish MBS.

President Joe Biden himself has taken a tougher stance on Riyadh over its human rights record and the Yemen war than his predecessor Donald Trump, who has strong ties to MBS.

To note, Jabri spent years as bin Nayef's closest aide at the Interior Ministry, including helping overhaul the kingdom's intelligence and counterterrorism operations.

In January, a group of Saudi Arabian state-owned companies alleged in a lawsuit in Canada that Jabri embezzled billions of dollars in state funds while working for the Interior Ministry.

Jabri denies stealing money, saying he has served Saudi royalty for two decades and they are "very generous" under a tradition where "they take care of those around them".

The Saudi embassy statement for "60 Minutes" said reforms led by Prince Mohammed had "ended the dirty type of corruption".

In the interview, Jabri said he had recorded a video that revealed more information that could have been released had he been killed. "I hope to be killed one day, because this man will not rest until he sees me dead," he said.