Saudi prince sent hit squad to Canada to kill ex-spy: lawsuit

  07 August 2020    Read: 1306
Saudi prince sent hit squad to Canada to kill ex-spy: lawsuit

The lawsuit says the squad — part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's personal mercenary group — tried to enter Canada in October 2018.

A Saudi dissident and former spymaster, exiled in Canada, was hunted by a squad of assassins from his homeland, less than two weeks after a Saudi team butchered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, says a lawsuit filed in the United States.

The lawsuit says the “Tiger Squad” — part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s personal mercenary group — tried to enter Canada on tourist visas in October 2018 to kill Saad Aljabri. But having lied about not knowing one another, and then when border guards found photos of them together, they were denied entry to Canada.

“Having failed to finish the job in Canada, (bin Salman) continues in his attempted extrajudicial killing to this day,” say court documents. “In recent months, Defendant bin Salman obtained a fatwa directed at Dr. Saad — in this case, a ruling by religious authorities endorsing the killing of Dr. Saad.”

The lawsuit detailing the attempts on Aljabri’s life is the latest esxplosive chapter in a campaign undertaken by the Kingdom to force Aljabri, who’s well-known and respected in Western intelligence circles, to return to Saudi Arabia.

Since 2017, Aljabri has quietly been living in Canada after fleeing Saudi Arabia following a tumultuous coup over the Saudi throne, and the series of purges that followed. The lawsuit also says that Aljabri is now a permanent resident in Canada.

It also comes as there is significant ongoing tension between the Canadian and Saudi governments.

Indeed, reports emerged earlier this summer of Saudi attempts to coerce another Saudi dissident living in Canada, Omar Abdulaziz, to return to the country, after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned him he might be in danger.

The pressure campaigns — sometimes escalating from intimidation to assassination — used against dissidents abroad is hardly an unusual tactic of the Saudi government, experts have told the National Post in interviews.

Most infamously, the Crown Prince bin Salman has been implicated in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, killed in October 2018; Saudi Arabia blames rogue agents for the killing and sentenced five to death for their role in it.

The new lawsuit filed in Washington says that bin Salman firmly believes it was Aljabri who contributed to the Central Intelligence Agency’s November 2018 conclusion that it was in fact the Saudi government behind Khashoggi’s death.

“Accordingly, to Defendant bin Salman, the threat posed by Dr. Saad to Defendant bin Salman’s standing in the United States is an urgent and ongoing one,” the lawsuit says.

Aljabri was the right-hand man of Mohammed bin Nayef, who’s the nephew of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. In a palace coup, bin Nayef was deposed in favour of Mohammed bin Salman, making Aljabri a target for the new regime, a source close to the Aljabri family told the Post earlier this year.

The lawsuit — and interviews with family sources — suggest that Aljabri “was privy to sensitive information about (bin Salman’s) covert political scheming … corrupt business dealings, and creation of a team of personal mercenaries that (he) would later use to carry out the extrajudicial killing of Jamal Khashoggi, among others.”

Those things, the lawsuit claims, are enough to “existentially alter” Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the United States’ government.

In March 2020, bin Nayef, along with several others, were rounded up on suspicion of plotting a coup against bin Salman; a few days later, Aljabri’s two children — who had been barred from leaving the country in 2017 — also vanished, and in May, Reuters reported, Aljabri’s brother also disappeared.

But now for the first time, court documents detail Saudi actions far beyond what has previously been reported.

Among the allegations is the claim that other relatives of Aljabri’s have been “arrested, detained, and tortured” to try and get him to return to Saudi Arabia.

And the lawsuit contains a series of message exchanges on WhatsApp, wherein bin Salman promises to find Aljabri and bring him back to Saudi Arabia and it details the campaign to extract information from Aljabri’s family, some of whom lived in Boston in 2017.

As well, the lawsuit says the Saudi government used “baseless” allegation sof corruption in a notice with INTERPOL to have Aljabri arrested in 2017; by 2018, INTERPOL had determined “the case is politically motivated rather than strictly juridical,” says the lawsuit.

The lawsuit details the efforts of the FBI in the United States to keep Aljabri and his family abreast of threats against them.

“While the U.S. government has thus far aided in the efforts to protect Dr. Saad’s life, it has been unable to prevent a credible attempt on Dr. Saad’s life by Defendant bin Salman’s agents, an attempt which remains ongoing to this day.”

The lawsuit says the attempts on his life have caused Aljabri “indescribable pain.”

“He lives in a state of extreme fear and anxiety, with insomnia and other physical effects, all because of the past credible attempts on his life and the knowledge that Defendant bin Salman wants him dead and is continuing to work, with seeming impunity, toward that ultimate objective.”

None of the allegations have been proven in court. The Saudi Consulate did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Canada’s Minister for Public Safety Bill Blair said, “While we cannot comment on specific allegations currently before the courts, we are aware of incidents in which foreign actors have attempted to monitor, intimidate or threaten Canadians and those living 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. Canadians can be confident that our security agencies have the skills and resources necessary to detect, investigate and respond to such threats. We will always take the necessary action to keep Canadians and those on Canadian soil safe and we invite people to report any such threats to law enforcement authorities.

We continue to condemn the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and support the investigation into this killing. Those responsible must be held to account and that is why we have sanctioned 17 Saudi nationals linked to this murder. We continue to call for a credible and independent international investigation.”


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