Saudi Crown Prince accused of assassination plot against senior exiled official
By Alex Marquardt, CNN
Updated 6:06 PM ET, Thu August 6, 2020
Washington (CNN)
A former top Saudi intelligence official who fell out with the Saudi Crown Prince is alleging that an assassination squad traveled from Saudi Arabia to Canada to try to kill him just days after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by members of the same group, according to a new legal complaint filed Thursday by the alleged target, Dr. Saad Aljabri, in DC District Court.
Aljabri accuses the Kingdom's powerful crown prince and defacto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, of dispatching the hit team to murder him just over a year after Aljabri fled from Saudi Arabia and he refused repeated efforts by the Crown Prince to lure him back home or somewhere more accessible to the Saudis. Aljabri also names numerous alleged co-conspirators, including two of the men accused of being behind the Khashoggi operation.
MBS, according to previously unreported WhatsApp text messages referenced in the complaint, demanded that Aljabri immediately return to Saudi Arabia. As he repeatedly refused, Aljabri alleges the Crown Prince escalated his threats, saying they would use "all available means" and threatened to "take measures that would be harmful to you." The Crown Prince also barred Aljabri's children from leaving the country.
The Saudi government in Riyadh, the embassy in Washington and the Crown Prince's no-profit foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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The US national security community has been tracking the Crown Prince's vendetta against Aljabri "at the highest levels" according to a former senior US official. "Everybody knows it," the former official said, "They know bin Salman wanted to lure Aljabri back to Saudi Arabia and failing that, that bin Salman would seek to find him outside with the intent to do him grave harm."
Nine months before Aljabri says the Saudi team landed in Canada to kill him, his son Khalid was warned by FBI agents about threats on Aljabri and his family's lives, according to the complaint. Khalid had arrived in Boston, and at Logan Airport, he was escorted to a meeting with two FBI agents, the complaint says, where he was purportedly told about bin Salman's "campaign to hunt Dr. Saad and his family in the United States, and urged them to exercise caution."
An adviser to Aljabri says the details on the Saudis who flew to Canada -- but were turned around at the airport -- came from western intelligence sources and private investigators.
Both the CIA and the FBI declined to comment. Officials on Capitol Hill who are aware of Aljabri's new allegations could not corroborate the intelligence behind them.
In a royal court, where proximity to the US is paramount, MBS's chief rival for the crown had been his older cousin Mohammed bin Nayef, similarly known as MBN. He and Aljabri, his longtime number two, had fostered close relationships with US intelligence officials over years of work together fighting terrorism, particularly against al Qaeda after 9/11. Aljabri's commitment and depth of knowledge had impressed US intelligence offers and helped save countless lives, former officials say.
Dr. Saad Aljabri pictured in Riyadh, 2016.
In 2017, MBN was deposed and MBS was made the heir apparent to the throne of his father, King Salman. MBN was placed under house arrest and earlier this year was detained. Sensing trouble for those close to MBN, his right-hand man, Aljabri, who had already been removed from his post, fled to Turkey in mid-2017, leaving behind two of his children, Sarah and Omar.
Aljabri's extensive knowledge would have been more beneficial to the Crown Prince than his death, argues Douglas London, a former Senior CIA Operations Officer who served extensively in the Middle East and retired in 2019. The goal of the Saudi team supposedly sent to Canada, he says, may have been to put Aljabri under observation to be able to render him back to Saudi Arabia, or kill him later.
"MBS is eager to neutralize the threat posed by Aljabri, whose intimate knowledge of the ruling family's skeletons, and everyone else's, and broad network, equipped him to enable any aspiring challenger to the crown," London says. "I don't rule out the possibility that MBS wanted to kill Aljabri, but it's just as likely, if not more so, that were there a team deployed to Canada, MBS wanted to put Aljabri under observation, information from which might provide insight on his contacts and activities."
MBS critic in Congress says allegations are 'credible'
The allegations of the assassination squad are "credible," says fervent MBS critic Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"When somebody who we already know is responsible for the kidnapping, rendition, murder and torture of other people in this category sends you a text message warning that bad things will happen to you, it's fair to assume that he means business," Malinowski said.
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The teenage children Aljabri left in the Kingdom were immediately barred from traveling, their father says, who pleaded with bin Salman to allow them to leave. The Crown Prince responded to the begging, Aljabri says, with WhatsApp messages saying "When I see you I will explain everything to you" and "I want you to come back tomorrow."
A Saudi warrant was issued and a notice was filed with Interpol to limit his movements, Aljabri says, also accusing MBS of pressuring Turkey to extradite him.
In mid-March of this year, according to Aljabri, now-22 year-old Omar and 20-year-old Sarah were abducted from their home and haven't been heard from since. The same month that the children had their travel permissions blocked, a relative of Aljabri's was snatched off the streets of Dubai, taken back to Saudi Arabai and tortured, Aljabri says. The relative says he was told explicitly, according to the complaint, that he was being punished as a proxy for Aljabri.
Meanwhile, since President Donald Trump came into office, his administration has fostered a close working relationship with MBS. In particular, senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner reportedly developed direct correspondence with the 34-year-old ruler that continued at least through the Khashoggi ordeal.
Last month, a group of senators -- including the acting chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Marco Rubio -- wrote to Trump calling on him to raise the issue of the Aljabri children with the Saudis, noting Aljabri's ties to US intelligence and saying: "the Saudi government is believed to be using the children as leverage to try to force their father's return to the kingdom from Canada."
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The brutal murder and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul put a spotlight on the Crown Prince's global campaign to violently stifle critics wherever they may be. Despite the US intelligence community assessing with high confidence that the execution was ordered by bin Salman, the failure by the Trump administration to condemn him has highlighted the impunity with which MBS operates. The Crown Prince denies any involvement in the operation while five members of the hit squad were sentenced to death by a Saudi court.
The assassins who killed Khashoggi were part of the Crown Prince's so-called "Tiger Squad," Aljabri says in his complaint, asserting that other members of the same team came after him. He claims the unit was born out of his own refusal to send counterterrorism forces under his command at the Interior Ministry to forcibly render a Saudi an insolent prince from Europe.
The Tiger Squad was formed, Aljabri says in the complaint, as a 50-strong "private death squad ... with one unifying mission: loyalty to the personal whims of Defendant bin Salman."
Aljabri alleges Saudi team arrived in Canada with 'forensic tools'
Aljabri's complaint says that around two weeks after Khashoggi was killed on October 2, 2018, 15 Saudi nationals arrived at Ottawa International Airport (the filing originally said Ontario but it has been corrected and is being resubmitted) with tourist visas to allegedly carry out the murder of Aljabri. Among them, he alleges, were multiple forensics specialists carrying "two bags of forensic tools" in their luggage.
According to the complaint, the team split up as they approached the customs kiosks but raised Canadian officials' suspicions who allegedly found photographic evidence showing some of the members together. After a lawyer from the Saudi embassy was called, the brief says, the members of the team agreed to be deported back to Saudi Arabia. One continued into Canada on a diplomatic passport, Aljabri's filing says.
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The mission, Aljabri says, was supervised back in Saudi Arabia by Saud al-Qahtani who was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for planning and executing the killing of Khashoggi. A second official named by Aljabri as an orchestrator, Ahmed al-Assiri, was also part of the Crown Prince's inner circle and relieved of his duties after Khashoggi was murdered. Neither was given a stiffer punishment.
A Canadian cabinet minister declined to comment on the specific allegations made by Aljabri citing the legal proceedings, but said they are aware of foreign nationals having tried to monitor and threaten people in Canada.
"It is completely unacceptable and we will never tolerate foreign actors threatening Canada's national security or the safety of our citizens and residents," said Bill Blair, the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
With the complaint, Aljabri is asking for a trial and seeking damages under the Torture Victim Protection Act and Alien Tort Statute. While the plot is said to have been attempted in Canada, a spokesman for Aljabri said the complaint is being filed in Washington because the suit alleges wrongdoing in the US.
Aljabri says the assassination attempt followed a campaign in both the US and Canada to hunt him down. He accuses MBS of using his non-profit foundation -- MiSK -- and the man who leads it, Bader Alasaker, of organizing agents in the US to find Aljabri.
One of them, Bijad Alharbi, a former close associate of Aljabri's, was successful in tracking Aljabri down in Toronto after speaking with his son in Boston, according to the complaint.
Though the attempt by the assassination team to enter Canada to kill him failed, Aljabri says, he believes the mission continues. He claims MBS has now secured a fatwa -- a religious ruling -- that allows him to kill Aljabri. Aljabri also accuses the Crown Prince of making other attempts to get to Aljabri in Canada, including sending agents across the border with the US by land.
This story has been updated to add comment from the Canadian government and reflect a corrected court filing from Aljabri's legal team.
CNN's Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.
VIDEO
https://us.cnn.com/2020/08/06/politics/saudi-assassination-plot-allegations/index.html
Former Saudi intelligence officer accuses prince of ordering his assassination
Spencer S. Hsu and Shane Harris Aug 07 2020
Former Saudi intelligence officer accuses prince of ordering his assassination
Spencer S. Hsu and Shane Harris Aug 07 2020
Saudi crown prince sued over alleged hand in murder plot
Mohammed bin Salman is accused of dispatching a group of hitmen to kill a former top Saudi intelligence official - Saad al-Jabari, who is in exile in Canada.
A former top Saudi intelligence officer and close US intelligence ally has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of targeting him for assassination and taking his children hostage because he has knowledge of damaging secrets about the prince's rise to power.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Washington on Friday (NZ time), Saad Aljabri said "there is virtually no one that Defendant bin Salman wants dead" more than him because of his relationship with the American government as "a longtime trusted partner of senior US intelligence officials."
Aljabri - now living in exile in Toronto - is "uniquely positioned to existentially threaten Defendant bin Salman's standing with the US Government," the lawsuit said.
In a detailed complaint running more than 100 pages, Aljabri alleges that the Saudi leader orchestrated a conspiracy to kill him in Canada that parallels one that resulted in the death and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident Saudi columnist and Washington Post contributor.
Khashoggi death: 20 go on trial in absentia
A Turkish court put 20 Saudi officials on trial in absentia on for the gruesome killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which sparked international outrage and tarnished the image of Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler (from 4 July).
Mohammed bin Salman is accused of dispatching a group of hitmen to kill a former top Saudi intelligence official - Saad al-Jabari, who is in exile in Canada.
A former top Saudi intelligence officer and close US intelligence ally has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of targeting him for assassination and taking his children hostage because he has knowledge of damaging secrets about the prince's rise to power.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Washington on Friday (NZ time), Saad Aljabri said "there is virtually no one that Defendant bin Salman wants dead" more than him because of his relationship with the American government as "a longtime trusted partner of senior US intelligence officials."
Aljabri - now living in exile in Toronto - is "uniquely positioned to existentially threaten Defendant bin Salman's standing with the US Government," the lawsuit said.
In a detailed complaint running more than 100 pages, Aljabri alleges that the Saudi leader orchestrated a conspiracy to kill him in Canada that parallels one that resulted in the death and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident Saudi columnist and Washington Post contributor.
Khashoggi death: 20 go on trial in absentia
A Turkish court put 20 Saudi officials on trial in absentia on for the gruesome killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which sparked international outrage and tarnished the image of Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler (from 4 July).
The CIA has assessed that Mohammed likely ordered Khashoggi's killing himself, The Washington Post previously reported.
Aljabri says the prince and his allies pressured him to return to Saudi Arabia, with Mohammed sending agents to the United States to locate Aljabri and having malware implanted on his phone. When Aljabri was ultimately located, Mohammed sent a "hit squad" to kill him, the lawsuit asserts.
The team was stopped by Canadian customs officials who, in a grisly echo of the Khashoggi case, were found carrying forensic tools that could have been used to dismember a corpse, Aljabri alleges.
Since March, Saudi authorities have arrested and held one of Aljabri's sons, Omar, 22, and a daughter, Sarah, 20, the suit alleges. Aljabri's brother has also been arrested, and other relatives detained and tortured inside and outside of Saudi Arabia, the lawsuit said, "all in an effort to bait [Aljabri] back to Saudi Arabia to be killed."
A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit. Some of Aljabri's allegations have previously been reported by The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Such explosive claims from a once-high-ranking Saudi official, whom the CIA credits with helping save American lives from terrorist attacks, could further strain Washington's battered relationship with Riyadh.
After Khashoggi's death in 2018, US Democratic and Republican lawmakers once counted as stalwart allies of the kingdom have turned away from the young crown prince and threatened to upend decades of economic and security cooperation between the two countries.
Mohammed has sought to rehabilitate his standing on the world stage. He has benefited from the support of US President Donald Trump, who has refused to accept the CIA's assessment that Mohammed probably ordered Khashoggi's death.
Trump has said the crown prince has assured him that he had nothing to do with what the US president has called "an unacceptable and horrible crime."
SASHA MORDOVETS/GETTY IMAGES
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is once again accused of ordering an assassination
Aljabri, represented by the Jenner & Block law firm, alleges in the lawsuit that Mohammed believes Aljabri "is responsible" for the CIA's conclusion and sees him as an impediment to further consolidating his power in Saudi Arabia and with the US intelligence community.
Aljabri was a close aide to deposed crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was perhaps the CIA's most trusted ally in the kingdom. Mohammed ousted bin Nayef in 2017 in a manoeuvre that Aljabri says "appeared to receive political cover from President Trump."
Current and former officials familiar with the CIA's assessment in Khashoggi's death, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss sensitive information, said they were sceptical that Aljabri had played such a key role, but did not doubt Mohammed might believe otherwise.
Several officials described Aljabri as a valuable partner to US intelligence operations who modernised Saudi's counterterrorism capabilities after the 9/11 attacks, cracked down on al-Qaida in the kingdom and pursued it into Yemen.
Aljabri has been credited for overseeing a network of informants who exposed a 2010 plot by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to send bombs concealed in computer printer cartridges on American cargo planes bound for Chicago, saving hundreds of lives.
Those who have spoken on Aljabri's behalf include Michael Morell, an acting director of the CIA under US President Barack Obama, and George Tenet, who served as CIA director during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Aljabri and bin Nayef also had a close relationship with former CIA director John Brennan, who was also a chief of station in Riyadh.
"In all of my years at CIA, but most especially when I served as director of the CIA Middle East Division, I never worked with any foreign official who had a better understanding of counterterrorism than Dr. Saad," said Daniel Hoffman, who retired from the agency in 2017.
"He justifiably deserves significant credit for building the US-Saudi counterterrorism partnership following 9/11 to the close partnership on which our national security so deeply relies today. He was key to disrupting numerous al-Qaida plots, which would have caused significant destruction and casualties in the US".
BANDAR ALGALOUD/SAUDI KINGDOM COUNCIL/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
US President, Donald Trump meets Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud a the G20 Summit at INTEX Osaka Exhibition Centre in Osaka, Japan on June 29, 2019.
In a July 7 letter to Trump, four senators called Aljabri "a close US ally and friend" and said the United States had "a moral obligation to do what it can to assist in securing his children's freedom."
"The Saudi royal family is holding Sarah and Omar Aljabri as hostages," Senator Patrick Leahy, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, wrote with Senators Marco Rubio, chairman of the Foreign Relations human rights subcommittee, Tim Kaine, and Chris Van Hollen.
"For a government to use such tactics is abhorrent. They should be released immediately."
Foreign leaders are typically immune from civil suits in US courts while in office. However, Aljabri sued under the Alien Tort Statute and a 1991 law called the Torture Victim Protection Act, which provides recourse in US courts for violations of international law and for victims of "flagrant human rights violations," including torture and summary execution abroad.
The suit also names as defendants Bader Alasaker, who heads the prince's private office and travels regularly to the United States; former Saudi officials linked to Khashoggi's death, the prince's MiSK Foundation, which Aljabri alleged deployed a network of agents to hunt him; as well as alleged agents and hit team members. The foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Aljabri's son Khalid, 36, a cardiologist who moved from Boston to be near his father in Toronto, said in an interview that his father has been an ally of the US government since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
"His main goal was the safety of his beloved country Saudi Arabia and its allies," his son said.
WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
A protester dressed as Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, demonstrates with members of the group Code Pink outside the White House in the wake of the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Aljabri stepped down in 2016 and "did not have any kind of experience working with the Trump administration," Khalid Aljabri said, adding, "I think honestly the Trump administration has a role in resolving this whole situation and doing the right thing by securing the release of my siblings."
In a letter Friday (NZ time) responding to concerns raised by U.S. senators, the State Department called Aljabri "a valued partner" to the US government and said it would work with the White House to resolve the situation "in a manner that honors Dr. Aljabri's service to our country."
"Any persecution of Dr. Aljabri's family members is unacceptable," Acting Assistant Secretary Ryan Kaldahl wrote.
He said the department has repeatedly requested that Saudi authorities clarify the nature of his children's detentions and "will continue to urge their immediate release, absent sufficient and compelling justification."
Aljabri's allegations also underscore strains in relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia. In August 2018, Saudi Arabia expelled Canada's ambassador and recalled its own envoy from Ottawa and thousands of government-funded Saudi students after Canada's then-Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland called for the release of civil society and women's rights activists arrested in the kingdom.
Canada imposed a moratorium on new arms-exports permits to Saudi Arabia partly in response to Khashoggi's killing.
The halt was lifted this April, after Canada secured improvements to a highly secretive US$10 billion contract to sell Riyadh light armored vehicles, though current Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters then that Saudi Arabia's human rights record "remains troubling."
UMAR FAROOQ/GETTY IMAGES
A member of the Organisation 'Justice for Jamal Khashoggi' holds a picture of Khashoggi in 2018.
The suit states that on about October 15, 2018, Canadian border officials intercepted a hit team from the prince's personal mercenary group, known as the Tiger Squad, on their way to kill Aljabri.
The alleged plot was foiled when Ontario airport customs officials became suspicious of the men, who initially claimed not to know one another, and then questioned them.
A lawyer from the Saudi embassy was called, and Canada eventually deported all but one of the alleged hit team members back to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials have accused Aljabri and bin Nayef of misspending billions of dollars in operational funds to enrich themselves and of sympathising with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In the lawsuit, however, Aljabri claims that over a 39-year long government career, it was he who was privy to Prince Mohammed's "covert political scheming . . . corrupt business dealings" and use of personal mercenaries.
"Few places hold more sensitive, humiliating, and damning information about Defendant bin Salman than the mind and memory of Dr. Saad - except perhaps the recordings Dr. Saad made in anticipation of his killing," the suit asserted.
The Washington Post's Amanda Coletta and Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
Aljabri says the prince and his allies pressured him to return to Saudi Arabia, with Mohammed sending agents to the United States to locate Aljabri and having malware implanted on his phone. When Aljabri was ultimately located, Mohammed sent a "hit squad" to kill him, the lawsuit asserts.
The team was stopped by Canadian customs officials who, in a grisly echo of the Khashoggi case, were found carrying forensic tools that could have been used to dismember a corpse, Aljabri alleges.
Since March, Saudi authorities have arrested and held one of Aljabri's sons, Omar, 22, and a daughter, Sarah, 20, the suit alleges. Aljabri's brother has also been arrested, and other relatives detained and tortured inside and outside of Saudi Arabia, the lawsuit said, "all in an effort to bait [Aljabri] back to Saudi Arabia to be killed."
A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit. Some of Aljabri's allegations have previously been reported by The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Such explosive claims from a once-high-ranking Saudi official, whom the CIA credits with helping save American lives from terrorist attacks, could further strain Washington's battered relationship with Riyadh.
After Khashoggi's death in 2018, US Democratic and Republican lawmakers once counted as stalwart allies of the kingdom have turned away from the young crown prince and threatened to upend decades of economic and security cooperation between the two countries.
Mohammed has sought to rehabilitate his standing on the world stage. He has benefited from the support of US President Donald Trump, who has refused to accept the CIA's assessment that Mohammed probably ordered Khashoggi's death.
Trump has said the crown prince has assured him that he had nothing to do with what the US president has called "an unacceptable and horrible crime."
SASHA MORDOVETS/GETTY IMAGES
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is once again accused of ordering an assassination
Aljabri, represented by the Jenner & Block law firm, alleges in the lawsuit that Mohammed believes Aljabri "is responsible" for the CIA's conclusion and sees him as an impediment to further consolidating his power in Saudi Arabia and with the US intelligence community.
Aljabri was a close aide to deposed crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was perhaps the CIA's most trusted ally in the kingdom. Mohammed ousted bin Nayef in 2017 in a manoeuvre that Aljabri says "appeared to receive political cover from President Trump."
Current and former officials familiar with the CIA's assessment in Khashoggi's death, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss sensitive information, said they were sceptical that Aljabri had played such a key role, but did not doubt Mohammed might believe otherwise.
Several officials described Aljabri as a valuable partner to US intelligence operations who modernised Saudi's counterterrorism capabilities after the 9/11 attacks, cracked down on al-Qaida in the kingdom and pursued it into Yemen.
Aljabri has been credited for overseeing a network of informants who exposed a 2010 plot by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to send bombs concealed in computer printer cartridges on American cargo planes bound for Chicago, saving hundreds of lives.
Those who have spoken on Aljabri's behalf include Michael Morell, an acting director of the CIA under US President Barack Obama, and George Tenet, who served as CIA director during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. Aljabri and bin Nayef also had a close relationship with former CIA director John Brennan, who was also a chief of station in Riyadh.
"In all of my years at CIA, but most especially when I served as director of the CIA Middle East Division, I never worked with any foreign official who had a better understanding of counterterrorism than Dr. Saad," said Daniel Hoffman, who retired from the agency in 2017.
"He justifiably deserves significant credit for building the US-Saudi counterterrorism partnership following 9/11 to the close partnership on which our national security so deeply relies today. He was key to disrupting numerous al-Qaida plots, which would have caused significant destruction and casualties in the US".
BANDAR ALGALOUD/SAUDI KINGDOM COUNCIL/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
US President, Donald Trump meets Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud a the G20 Summit at INTEX Osaka Exhibition Centre in Osaka, Japan on June 29, 2019.
In a July 7 letter to Trump, four senators called Aljabri "a close US ally and friend" and said the United States had "a moral obligation to do what it can to assist in securing his children's freedom."
"The Saudi royal family is holding Sarah and Omar Aljabri as hostages," Senator Patrick Leahy, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, wrote with Senators Marco Rubio, chairman of the Foreign Relations human rights subcommittee, Tim Kaine, and Chris Van Hollen.
"For a government to use such tactics is abhorrent. They should be released immediately."
Foreign leaders are typically immune from civil suits in US courts while in office. However, Aljabri sued under the Alien Tort Statute and a 1991 law called the Torture Victim Protection Act, which provides recourse in US courts for violations of international law and for victims of "flagrant human rights violations," including torture and summary execution abroad.
The suit also names as defendants Bader Alasaker, who heads the prince's private office and travels regularly to the United States; former Saudi officials linked to Khashoggi's death, the prince's MiSK Foundation, which Aljabri alleged deployed a network of agents to hunt him; as well as alleged agents and hit team members. The foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Aljabri's son Khalid, 36, a cardiologist who moved from Boston to be near his father in Toronto, said in an interview that his father has been an ally of the US government since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
"His main goal was the safety of his beloved country Saudi Arabia and its allies," his son said.
WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
A protester dressed as Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, demonstrates with members of the group Code Pink outside the White House in the wake of the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Aljabri stepped down in 2016 and "did not have any kind of experience working with the Trump administration," Khalid Aljabri said, adding, "I think honestly the Trump administration has a role in resolving this whole situation and doing the right thing by securing the release of my siblings."
In a letter Friday (NZ time) responding to concerns raised by U.S. senators, the State Department called Aljabri "a valued partner" to the US government and said it would work with the White House to resolve the situation "in a manner that honors Dr. Aljabri's service to our country."
"Any persecution of Dr. Aljabri's family members is unacceptable," Acting Assistant Secretary Ryan Kaldahl wrote.
He said the department has repeatedly requested that Saudi authorities clarify the nature of his children's detentions and "will continue to urge their immediate release, absent sufficient and compelling justification."
Aljabri's allegations also underscore strains in relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia. In August 2018, Saudi Arabia expelled Canada's ambassador and recalled its own envoy from Ottawa and thousands of government-funded Saudi students after Canada's then-Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland called for the release of civil society and women's rights activists arrested in the kingdom.
Canada imposed a moratorium on new arms-exports permits to Saudi Arabia partly in response to Khashoggi's killing.
The halt was lifted this April, after Canada secured improvements to a highly secretive US$10 billion contract to sell Riyadh light armored vehicles, though current Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters then that Saudi Arabia's human rights record "remains troubling."
UMAR FAROOQ/GETTY IMAGES
A member of the Organisation 'Justice for Jamal Khashoggi' holds a picture of Khashoggi in 2018.
The suit states that on about October 15, 2018, Canadian border officials intercepted a hit team from the prince's personal mercenary group, known as the Tiger Squad, on their way to kill Aljabri.
The alleged plot was foiled when Ontario airport customs officials became suspicious of the men, who initially claimed not to know one another, and then questioned them.
A lawyer from the Saudi embassy was called, and Canada eventually deported all but one of the alleged hit team members back to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials have accused Aljabri and bin Nayef of misspending billions of dollars in operational funds to enrich themselves and of sympathising with the Muslim Brotherhood.
In the lawsuit, however, Aljabri claims that over a 39-year long government career, it was he who was privy to Prince Mohammed's "covert political scheming . . . corrupt business dealings" and use of personal mercenaries.
"Few places hold more sensitive, humiliating, and damning information about Defendant bin Salman than the mind and memory of Dr. Saad - except perhaps the recordings Dr. Saad made in anticipation of his killing," the suit asserted.
The Washington Post's Amanda Coletta and Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.
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