WASHINGTON: Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hasasked a US federal court to throw out a lawsuit which accused him of tryingto have an ex-intelligence official assassinated.
Prince Mohammed’s lawyer told the federal court in Washington that SaadAljabri’s suit filed in August did not provide evidence of the “hit squad”that he alleged the prince sent to kill him.
The filing Monday also said that, as designated heir to the Saudi throne,Prince Mohammed was protected by laws of sovereign immunity.
“This court lacks personal jurisdiction over the Crown Prince,” it said.
“The complaint alleges an attempt to kill Aljabri in Canada, directed fromSaudi Arabia. None of the scant allegations pertaining to the United Statesestablishes the contacts between the Crown Prince, the United States, andAljabri’s legal claims.”
Aljabri said Prince Mohammed sent a “hit squad” to Canada, where he livesin exile, to kill and dismember him in 2018, in the same way thatjournalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Istanbul in October that year.
The murder sparked an international outcry and tarnished the reputation ofthe oil-rich kingdom and the crown prince.
Aljabri said that Prince Mohammed wants him dead because he is close torival prince and former Saudi security chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, andbecause he has intimate information on Prince Mohammed that would sour theclose relationship between Washington and Riyadh.
Aljabri alleged that the prince’s personal Prince Mohammed Bin SalmanAbdulaziz Foundation, was used to plan and recruit participants, dubbed theTiger Squad, inside the United States.
But the plot was allegedly detected and disrupted by Canadian police beforethey could act.
In four parallel filings earlier this week, the foundation and 11 Saudisnamed in the lawsuit likewise sought dismissal, citing the lack of evidenceand jurisdiction.
Aljabri filed the case as a claim of attempted extrajudicial killing underthe Torture Victim Protection Act, and asked for unspecified personaldamages for “severe emotional distress,” anxiety and hypertension, andother ailments, and punitive damages as well.
But the motions for dismissal rejected that.
“Aljabri is alive and, according to the complaint itself, has never been somuch as touched. By its plain terms, the TVPA does not reach an attempt atan extrajudicial killing,” it said.
It also faulted Aljabri for not pursuing the case in Canada or Saudi Arabia.
The prince’s filing meanwhile accused Aljabri and his family of taking partin the misappropriation and theft of $11 billion meant for counterterrorismoperations when Aljabri was a senior official at the Saudi InteriorMinistry in 2001-2015.
“The flaws in this complaint are so apparent and run so deep that it canonly be regarded as an attempt to divert attention from plaintiff’s massivetheft,” it said.
“Plaintiff can say whatever he wants to the newspapers. But this case doesnot belong in federal court.” – APP/AFP