When the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, began to tighten his grip on power, he arrested a large number of members of the royal family and prominent personalities, but one person continued to dodge him and he has not yet been able to reach him.

This person is Saad Al-Jabri, who previously held a senior position in Saudi intelligence and was close to the isolated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef.

The family of the former intelligence official says bin Salman has in recent months increased pressure on his relatives, including the arrest of his two adult sons, to try to force him to return to the kingdom from his exile in Canada.

Four sources familiar with the matter said that the Crown Prince's attention focused on documents available to Al-Jabri containing sensitive information.
On March 6, the Saudi authorities arrested Bin Nayef and two other senior members of the ruling family, in the latest in a series of exceptional measures that appeared to aim to eliminate what may constitute a threat to his authority before his father succeeded King Salman, who reached 85 years.

Two informed sources reported that a number of senior officials of the Ministry of the Interior were also arrested during the same period.

Al-Jabri family says that days after the arrest of Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, the Saudi authorities arrested two of Al-Jabri’s sons, Omar (21) and Sarah (20), after they raided the family’s house at dawn in the capital Riyadh.

This was followed by the arrest of the brother of the former intelligence official in early May.

The Al-Jabri family said they requested help from members of the US Congress, and the offices of Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Patrick Leahy reported that the two senators had already spoken to the family.

Tim Riser, a senior aide to Democratic Senator Leahy, said that members of Congress are concerned "about the disappearance of the two young men after they were arrested by the Saudi security forces." "It appears that they used two hostages to try to compel their father to return to Saudi Arabia," he added.

Dangerous information
The Al-Jabri family reported that the crown prince believed that he could use the documents in Al-Jabri’s possession against his current rivals. She added that he was also afraid that these documents would include additional information that he and his father, the King, would touch.

Two informed sources and a former regional security official indicated that the documents contained information about Prince Mohammed bin Nayef's assets and property abroad, which could benefit bin Salman in pressuring his predecessor.

There are also sensitive files available to Al-Jabri regarding the financial dealings of senior members of the royal family, including King Salman and his son, the Crown Prince.

A diplomat said that some information related to land deals and transactions, but he only said that it related to King Salman in the period when he was the Prince of Riyadh, a position where he spent nearly four decades before the throne in 2015.
According to an informed Saudi source, the crown prince wants to bring charges To Prince Muhammad bin Nayef related to allegations of corruption during the period when he was in charge of the Ministry of Interior, and Reuters was unable to verify these allegations.

"They wanted Al-Jabri for a long time as the right arm of Prince Muhammad bin Nayef," the source added. The government communications office did not respond to questions from Reuters about the arrests and their reasons.

Washington is watching and
a US official said that Washington raised the issue of the detention of Ibn Al-Jabri and his daughter with the Saudi leadership. He added that many US government officials worked directly with Al-Jabri for a long time and that he was "a very strong partner in the fight against terrorism."

A second US official said in Washington that the United States was in contact with the Al Jabri family in Canada and was "exploring ways to help."

"We are deeply concerned by reports of the detention of al-Jabri's sons, and we strongly condemn any oppression based on oppression of family members, whatever the charges against al-Jabri," he added.

Canadian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sirine Khoury said that Canada is also concerned about the detention of al-Jabri's children. She did not elaborate on whether her government was taking specific steps.

Some sources indicate that Bin Salman sees Al-Jabri as a serious threat and is keen to arrest him (Reuters)

Two decades in intelligence
Saad al-Jabri has worked for nearly two decades with Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, and has helped reform intelligence and counter-terrorism operations and build close ties with Western officials.

"He had all the files for everything and for everyone," said the former regional security official. He added that Al-Jabri was coordinating relations between Saudi intelligence and the CIA.

When King Salman took the throne in January 2015, he appointed Al-Jabri as Minister of State.

Khaled al-Jabri said that the relations at that time between his father and Prince Muhammad bin Salman "were really good at the beginning", but they soon worsened, and that close opponents of Prince Muhammad claimed that al-Jabri was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. The family strongly denies the claim.

Al-Jabri was sacked just four months after his appointment to this position, and he became a personal adviser to Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, the position he held until the overthrow of Bin Nayef in June 2017.

Reuters sources described al-Jabri as being very loyal to Prince Muhammad bin Nayef.

Khaled Al-Jabri said that since 2017, the Saudi authorities have made repeated attempts to induce his father to return to the kingdom, adding that his brother and sister were prevented from leaving the kingdom more than two years before their arrest, and that the authorities interrogated them more than once to ask about their father.

Khaled said that Prince Muhammad bin Salman made an offer in 2017 to his father to allow his son and daughter to travel in exchange for his return.

The family explained that they did not know the whereabouts of the two, and were unable to communicate with them. "Every time we ask people inside, we are told that Prince Muhammad bin Salman takes care of their detention himself and does not bother asking you for the details," Khalid said.

A source of threat
According to the sources that spoke to Reuters, Bin Salman is targeting Al-Jabri due to his deep knowledge of some of the most sensitive information in the Kingdom, as well as his popularity in Western political circles and his relationships with some old security officials in Saudi Arabia.

The diplomat said al-Jabri could be considered a threat to Prince Muhammad bin Salman if US President Donald Trump fails to win a second term.

It is noteworthy that Muhammad bin Salman came under international criticism after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and the CIA said that the crown prince ordered his killing.

Bin Salman denied issuing the order to kill Khashoggi but said he ultimately bore "full responsibility" as the de facto ruler of the kingdom.