Saudi crown prince asks US court to dismiss assassination lawsuit

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has asked the US federal court in Washington to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him by an ex-intelligence official accusing him of an assassination attempt.

The Saudi prince’s lawyer Michael Kellogg confirmed that the court has no jurisdiction over the prince who enjoys “immunity” from prosecution in the US, adding that the “flaws” in the complaint are: “So apparent and run so deep that it can only be regarded as an attempt to divert attention from the plaintiff’s massive theft.”

Last August, Saudi former spy chief Saad Al-Jabri, who currently lives in exile in Canada, filed a lawsuit claiming that the crown prince had “dispatched a hit squad” to kill him in October 2018, but Canadian authorities foiled the attempt.

However, the court’s filing accuses Al-Jabri and his family of taking part in the misappropriation and of the theft of $11 billion intended for counterterrorism operations when Al-Jabri was a senior official at the Saudi Interior Ministry between 2001 and 2015.

In 2017, Al-Jabri, who was close to the former Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, fled the kingdom when the latter was ousted in favour of Bin Salman, and settled in the Toronto area where he now lives under protection.

2 years after Jamal Khashoggi’s murder MBS has nothing to be worried about – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

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