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image sources, Reuters
Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman is considered the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman has been accused of sending a team to Canada to kill Saad al Jabri, a former Saudi intelligence official.
The failed plan to kill Al Jabri came shortly after the journalist’s murder jamal khashoggi in Turkey, according to court documents from a lawsuit filed Thursday in the United States.
Al Jabri, a veteran of the Saudi government, went into exile three years ago and has since been under the protection of private security in Toronto.
The alleged plot fell through after Canadian border officials became suspicious of the squad as it attempted to enter the country through Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, according to court documents.
Al Jabri, 61, was for years the key intermediary between Britain’s MI6 and other Western spy agencies in Saudi Arabia.
What does the prosecution say?
The 106-page lawsuit, filed in Washington DC, accuses the crown prince of attempting to assassinate Al Jabri in order to silence him.
Al Jabri says it’s because he has, according to the document, “damning information” about allegations of corruption and oversees a team of personal mercenaries called Tiger Squad.
Members of the Tiger Squad were implicated in the death of dissident journalist Khashoggi, who was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, according to the lawsuit.
image sources, Reuters
Saad al Jabri accuses Mohamed bin Salman of wanting to kill him for having compromising information on the Saudi prince.
“Few places contain more sensitive, humiliating and damning information about the Defendant Bin Salman than the mind and memory of Dr Saad, with the possible exception of the recordings Dr Saad made in anticipation of his assassination,” the document reads.
“This is why the accused Bin Salman wants him dead and has been working in this direction for three years,” he adds.
After fleeing Saudi Arabia in the face of an impending purge by the all-powerful crown prince in 2017, Jabri traveled to Canada via Turkey.
Al Jabri alleges that Mohamed bin Salman made repeated efforts to bring him back to Saudi Arabia, including sending private messages, including one saying, “We will definitely contact you.”
The former Saudi official also claims that then, less than two weeks after Khashoggi’s assassination, the Tiger Squad traveled to Canada with the intention of killing him.
The lawsuit says the group, which included a man from the same agency as the one accused of dismembering Khashoggi, were carrying two bags of forensic tools.
However, Canadian border officials “quickly grew suspicious” of the group and refused entry after questioning them, the document said.
image sources, Getty Images
Jamal Khashoggi was a critical government reporter for MBS.
“Bin Salman did, in fact, send a squad of hitmen to North America to kill Dr. Saad,” the complaint states.
Jabri accuses the crown prince of attempted extrajudicial assassination in violation of the US Torture Victim Protection Act and in violation of international law.
The Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment.
Canadian federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said he could not comment on the specific case, but noted that the government was “aware of incidents in which foreign actors attempted to monitor, d ‘to intimidate or threaten Canadians and persons living in Canada’.
“This is completely unacceptable and we will never tolerate foreign actors threatening Canada’s national security or the safety of our citizens and residents. Canadians can be assured that our security agencies have the skills and resources to detect, investigate and respond to such threats,” he said.
“We will always take steps to keep Canadians and those on Canadian soil safe, and we encourage people to report such threats to law enforcement authorities,” he said. declared.
In May, the BBC reported that Al Jabri’s sons had been held “hostage” in Saudi Arabia, according to his eldest son, Khalid.
The youngster told the BBC he believed his brothers had been held as bargaining chips in an attempt to force their father back to Saudi Arabia.
Who is Saad al-Jabri?
For years he was the right-hand man of Prince Mohamed bin Nayef, widely credited with defeating an al-Qaeda insurgency in the 2000s.
He was also the linchpin of all of Saudi Arabia’s relations with the “Five Eyes” alliance, the intelligence agencies of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New -Zealand.
King Salman has appointed his son, Mohamed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s defense minister.
Jabri, a quiet-voiced man, earned a doctorate in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh.
He rose to the rank of Cabinet Minister of Saudi Arabia and held the rank of Major General in the Ministry of Interior.
But in 2015, everything changed. King Abdullah died and his half-brother Salman ascended the throne, appointing his son Mohamed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, as defense minister.
In 2017, Bin Salman led a bloodless coup, with his father’s blessing.
He usurped the next in line to the throne, Prince Mohamed bin Nayef, becoming crown prince.
Bin Nayef is currently under arrest, his property has been seized and those who work for him have been removed from their jobs. Jabri fled to Canada.
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