Saudi suspected of helping nationals evade justice in US

Saudi Arabia is suspected of helping its nationals living in the US to evade justice for serious criminal offences including rape and manslaughter. The kingdom’s alleged role in helping fugitives flee from the US and avoid serving prison has attracted the attention of US lawmakers and one senator in particular is now taking steps to subject Riyadh to an investigation.

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley is spearheading a drive to launch an investigation into the Saudi government’s suspected role in spiriting accused criminals out of the US. A Senate vote is expected by the end of the year to authorise the probe.

The issue of the Saudi government’s suspected involvement in helping nationals evade justice came to light when multiple such cases in which Saudi students studying in the US were reported to have vanished while facing serious criminal charges.

“It’s completely unacceptable and outrageous that any nation would assist their citizens in escaping the U.S. to evade justice after they’ve committed serious crimes,” Merkley is reported saying yesterday by the Oregonian

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The local paper revealed that since December there were at least seven such cases involving Saudi students. All are said to have disappeared from Oregon before they faced trial or completed their jail sentence on charges ranging from rape to manslaughter, including those who had surrendered their passports to authorities.

The news organisation also said that it had found similar cases in at least seven other states — Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin — and Canada, bringing the total number of known Saudi suspects who have escaped US prosecution to 25.

It was explained that the US and Saudi Arabia do not share an extradition treaty which makes the return of any Saudi suspect who has left the US unlikely, if not impossible, without diplomatic or political pressure.

While previous attempts to launch such a case had failed, Merkley who sits in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to get this investigation launched. If given the Senate go ahead, the probe would require the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence, to report to Congress within 90 days the steps the State Department and Saudi Arabia have taken to probe the disappearances.

The probe would have wider ramifications. According to the Oregonian it would also ask the Trump administration to consider expelling from the US any diplomat or consular official found to have assisted Saudi fugitives in their escape, as well as stripping US real estate holdings from the consulate.

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