US lawmakers are preparing to consider declassifying information about the escape of Saudis under trial

The US House of Representatives is preparing to consider a bill passed unanimously by the Senate last Thursday, asking the Director of National Intelligence to declassify all information regarding whether the Saudi government has provided assistance to its citizens to flee the United States while awaiting trials or sentencing for criminal offenses. .

Senator Ron Weiden addressed the Senate last Thursday on the issue, after which he urged members of the Senate to vote unanimously on the draft resolution that he submitted the same day.

The issue is increasingly reacting in the United States, especially after it reached Congress, and is no longer confined to the judiciary and newspaper headlines.

Senator Jeff Merkel, a Democrat, said earlier that it was clear Riyadh had a deliberate strategy to help its citizens who commit serious crimes in the United States escape justice.

"This is dangerous and unacceptable, and that is why he introduced a bill to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for helping its citizens in the United States escape impunity," Merkeley said in a tweet on Twitter.

US media have been interested in covering the case recently, after the attorney general in Portland, Oregon, said in December that he suspected a Saudi student of helping one of her students to flee the United States despite being on trial for the murder of an American girl in a dad. .

At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing late last month, Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden asked the FBI director to present a report explaining the circumstances of Saudis fleeing the United States with the help of the Saudi government.

There are "serious" indications that Riyadh has supported the flight of Saudi nationals accused of serious crimes from the United States, Wieden said. "This is a blow to the rule of law," he said, adding that the Saudis may have fled with illegal passports via private jets.

Fox News reported in mid-last month that five Saudi university students in Oregon pursuing criminal charges had disappeared, adding that their country's authorities had helped them escape.

The network pointed out that the US judiciary has filed criminal charges between 2012 and 2016 for Saudi citizens Abdul Rahman Samir Nora, Abdul Aziz Al-Duwais, Waleed Ali Al-Harthy, Sulaiman Ali Ghuwaith and Ali Hassan Al-Homoud. The charges included murder for negligence, rape and sexual exploitation of children.