Saudi ex-spy claims crown prince bragged he could kill late king with ‘poison ring from Russia’
- Saad al-Jabri claimed in US TV interview that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman boasted he could kill then King Abdullah in 2014
- Ex-official, who currently lives in Canada, claims crown prince will not rest until ‘he sees me dead’
A former senior Saudi security official who helped oversee joint US counterterrorism efforts claimed in an interview with 60 Minutes that the kingdom’s crown prince once spoke of killing a sitting Saudi monarch before his own father was crowned king.
Saad al-Jabri did not provide evidence to the CBS News show, which aired Sunday.
The ex-intelligence official, who lives in exile in Canada, claimed that in 2014, Prince Mohammed boasted that he could kill King Abdullah. At the time, Prince Mohammed held no senior role in government but was serving as gatekeeper to his father’s royal court when his father was still heir to the throne. King Salman ascended to the throne in January 2015 after his half-brother, King Abdullah, died of stated natural causes.
Al-Jabri used the interview to warn Prince Mohammed bin Salman that he’s recorded a video that reveals even more royal secrets and some of the United States. A short, silent clip was shown to 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley. The video, al-Jabri said, could be released if he’s killed.
It’s the latest attempt by the ex-counterterrorism official to try to pressure the 36-year-old crown prince, whom the al-Jabri family says has detained two of al-Jabri’s adult children and is using them as pawns to force their father back to Saudi Arabia. If he returns, al-Jabri faces possible abuse, imprisonment or house arrest like his former boss, the once-powerful interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was ousted from the line of succession by Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017.
