Saudi hunt for former intelligence tzar arrives in Malta
Saudi Arabia's hunt for its former top intelligence
official, Saad Al-Jabri, has arrived in the island of Malta, opening a new
front in the international feud between the exiled critic and Crown Prince
Mohamed Bin Salman.
Known as MBS, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom has been
locked in legal battles with Al-Jabri in the US and Canada for over a year. The
Saudis have accused Al-Jabri of misappropriating state funds and
embezzlement. They have been desperate,
ever since, to get their hands on the 63-year-old who fled the Kingdom
following "soft-coup" that saw MBS replace Mohammed Bin Nayef as
crown prince.
Al-Jabri left the kingdom in 2017 and settled in Turkey
before moving to Canada. Last year, he filed a lawsuit in the US claiming that
Bin Salman had ordered a hit squad to seek out and kill him, just thirteen days
after the murder of journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, in the Saudi Consulate in
Istanbul. The Saudi government has also filed a case in the US against
Al-Jabri, alleging that he embezzled state funds. He has denied the allegation.
With Al-Jabri's links to US intelligence, having been
Riyad's top intelligence officer for many years, Saudi Arabia's relentless
pursuit of him even prompted a rare intervention by the American Justice
Department over concerns that state secrets could be leaked during the legal
case.
In the Maltese part of the international feud, Riyadh is
seeking to prevent Al-Jabri, who acquired citizenship of the Island state in
2016 through the Individual Investor Programme, from selling his Tigné Point
apartment in Sliema.
In the Maltese court case, the Saudi-registered Sakab Saudi
Holding Company is said to have filed a warrant of injunction against Al- Jabri
and his Cayman Island registered company, Ten Leaves Management, to stop them
from transferring the right to use an apartment at Tigné Point, Sliema north of
the capital Valletta.
According to Malta today, the sixth-floor apartment in the
luxury development was purchased in 2018. Sakab, part of a group of 17
companies set up by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, claims Al-Jabri used offshore
structures to hide illicit profits to enrich his family and purchase properties
around the world.
Al-Jabri is accused of using Sakab as a vehicle to
distribute €6 billion in funds to other commercial entities between 2008 and
2017, funnelled to other members of the Sakab group, allegedly on Al-Jabri's
instructions. Apparently, the vast majority of the financial transactions were
"off the books" and not declared in the official accounts.
"It is in the humble understanding of the applicants,
and this always according to the evidence in hand, that Ten Leaves bought the
properties using funds misappropriated through a fraudulent scheme as part of
Jabri's efforts to hide and launder misappropriated monies," Sakab, which
is represented in Malta by lawyer, Louis Cassar Pullicino, said.
Al-Jabri has denied the allegations of embezzlement and
misappropriation of state funds.
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