Le Pen: Because he seemed to be very distinguished ... Prince Salman has been in prison for two years

The wave of new arrests within the ruling family in Saudi Arabia today brought to mind the case of Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Muhammad Al Saud, who has been detained in his country with his father for more than two years, without charge.

The French magazine LeBouan, which raised the issue of the imprisoned prince and his father, said that it was the good relations that Prince Salman enjoyed with the leaders of the western world that brought him the wrath of his relative, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, especially after he visited America on the eve of the last presidential elections and met Democratic Senator Adam Schiff. At a time when the crown prince was supporting Republican candidate Donald Trump.

In an article by Armin Arifi, the magazine reclaimed Lum Salman, the then ruler of Riyadh and his current son, 17-year-old Mohammed, who was fond of video games, while on vacation in southern France, for not being interested in studying, comparing it to his cousin, Salman. "Look at your cousin. He is hardworking and learns foreign languages ​​instead of spending his time playing games and eating pizza. "

Salman, who was four years older than Salman at the time, was distinguished. He received a doctorate in comparative law from the Sorbonne, and he speaks Arabic, English and French, while Muhammad, in contrast to him, was an isolated teenager who did not master English and did not know what was going on outside the Kingdom, where he graduated in a department Law at King Saud University in Riyadh, and he lives continuously in the custody of his father, who owes him his rapid rise and burning of stages in the ladder of power.

No charge

After 17 years of licensing Muhammad bin Salman with his father in the south of France, and while his illustrious cousin Prince Salman has been in prison since he was summoned to him in Jeddah in 2018 - as the writer says - this prince became the most powerful man in Saudi Arabia, after his appointment as crown prince The de facto leader of the oil-rich kingdom replaced his sick father, Salman, 84, who was ill.

The fate of Prince Salman (40 years) is still unknown, "after he was placed two years ago in the heavily guarded prison of al-Ha'ir, south of Riyadh, and then transferred with his father Abdul Aziz to one of the private properties, and they are allowed to make two phone calls and receive one visit per week, but they cannot Calling a lawyer and they have not been charged with any formal charges, "according to a close relative of the emir.

The writer asked how this idealistic prince ended up - as he described him - a prisoner of Muhammad bin Salman, after he was at the head of many private transport companies and spent a large portion of his time in Europe, especially in France where he woven a wide network of relations with French politicians, although he He was never interested in politics.

A Western diplomat confirms that Prince Salman "tried to present himself without success, as a natural mediator between French and Saudi companies," but he had no weight in the regime of Bin Salman because he is not a direct descendant of the kingdom's founder.

This prince, according to the author, raised the suspicions of the Saudi authorities when he went to the United States in the midst of the 2016 US presidential campaign, and met Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, at a time when Riyadh was supporting Republican candidate Donald Trump behind the scenes, which led to his being called back to Riyadh Within 24 hours, but he refused.

So there was a misunderstanding with the authorities who thought he was seeking to support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, although this was not the case, because the Prince was discussing issues with education and youth with Congress, a close associate of Prince Salman said.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's arrival in the White House strengthened the close ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and Washington chose bin Salman to be the strongman in Riyadh, while Prince Salman, who has cold ties to the Crown Prince, settled in Paris and did not venture back to his country.

A person close to Prince Salman says that he and the crown prince were friends, but bin Salman was jealous of him, because he was known in France without any official position and did not criticize anyone, while no one heard about the crown prince before taking power.

Phone call

One morning in July 2017, Prince Salman received a phone call from the Kingdom, and his cousin Muhammad bin Salman was on the other end of the line. “The conversation lasted an hour and ten minutes, during which he encouraged him to return to the country and reminded him that they are cousins,” that was more than A year after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, indeed some of the princes critical of the new regime had been tempted to return, but Prince Salman did not notice the trap, as his relative says, although he did not pose any danger to Bin Salman.

Prince Salman's return to the country was smooth and he was received with a number of princes in the palace, and he took a picture with the king and his crown prince, as the king honored him by attending his marriage with one of the daughters of the former king Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who was close to him, according to a Western diplomat.

Disinfection process

In October 2017, the writer said, bin Salman showed the darker side of his character, when he conducted an unprecedented purge against dozens of princes and businessmen, and locked them up in the luxurious Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, most of whom were released after agreeing to " Paying "billions of dollars, although - as a Western diplomat said -" imprisoned anyone who criticized his actions from the family, and by that he sent a clear message to the whole family. "

Three months later, Prince Salman was summoned to the royal palace and did not come back after it. When his father Abdul Aziz, the former adviser to King Fahd, raised the news that he did not return to his acquaintances abroad, he was also arrested the next day, and "it has nothing to do with money." It is jealousy and an unjustified fear that Prince Salman will stage a coup against his cousin, "says the source close to the palace.

When Eli Hatem, the lawyer of Prince Salman and his father, did not find a response from the Saudi authorities, he requested the assistance of France in which the prince was staying, and informed its president, Emmanuel Macron, about the imprisonment of Salman and his father Abdel Aziz and asked him to question the Saudi authorities about them, knowing that Paris could not do much, given Because they do not hold French citizenship.

Although the French presidency replied that it had taken into account the matter and mandated the Foreign Ministry to follow it up, two years had passed and the French diplomacy did not provide any information to the lawyer about the two prisoners.