Former Saudi intelligence officer sues crown prince over attempted assassination

Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A former Saudi intelligence officer on Thursday accused Saudi Crown Pince Mohammed bin Salman of targeting him for assassination due to his role as a close ally to U.S. intelligence officials.

Saad Aljabri filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., alleging that bin Salman made an attempt to kill him, including, "hunting him down" in the United States, traveling to Canada with materials necessary to "clean up the crime" and kidnapping his children in an effort to lure him back to Saudi Arabia to murder him.

Aljabri likened the conspiracy to assassinate him to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who Istanbul's chief prosecutor has said was killed by a "hit team" that used a bone saw to dismember his body inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

The CIA in 2018 concluded bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's killing.

The suit describes Aljabri as a longtime trusted partner of U.S. intelligence officials which left him "uniquely positioned to existentially threaten" bin Salman's standing with the U.S. government.

It also alleges "there is virtually no one" bin Salman wants dead more than Aljbari, as a result of these ties to the U.S. intelligence community.

Saudi authorities have arrested his 22-year-old son Omar, and 20-year-old daughter Sarah, as well as his brother. Other relatives of his have also been detained and tortured in an attempt to lure him back to Saudi Arabia to be killed, the lawsuit states.