On Saturday, two weeks after Saudi Arabia hosted a major investment conference, 11 princes, 4 current ministers and tens of former ministers have been arrested and are being detained in the Ritz Carlton, a five star hotel in Riyadh. However, it is not clear what they are being investigated for.
One of the arrests, as mentioned fearfully to the press by one of his employees anonymously, is of Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. If you aren’t aware of who Prince Al-Waleed Ibn Talal is, he just happens to be one of the richest people in the Middle East, who is known for his avid support of different women’s rights organizations.
His hefty investments include Twitter, Apple, Lyft, Careem, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., Citigroup, and the Four Seasons, Fairmont and Moven-Pick hotel chains. Just to name a few!
Two of the late King Abdullah’s sons were also arrested; consequently, Prince Khalid bin Ayyaf al-Muqrin replaced Prince Miteb Ibn Abdullah to head the National Guard, who’s role is mainly to protect the Royal family. Despite the fact that King Abdullah’s sons were known to be supporters of the government, King Salman was appointed to eliminate the country from corruption.
Additionally, as mentioned by the Saudi twitter account, Alwalid al-Ibrahim, who runs the Arabic satellite group MBC, has also been arrested as well as Amr al-Dabbagh, the former head of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, Ibrahim Assaf, the former finance minister; and Bakr Binladin, head of the Saudi Binladin Group, a major business conglomerate.
To further smooth the crown prince’s inevitable succession to the throne, the Prince’s introduced the anti-corruption move which hopes to lead “a new era of transparency and accountability,” – as the ministry of Finance suggests, which promotes trust in the rule of law. This probe is another step forward in fulfilling the 2030 vision of Saudi Arabia; as the elimination of corruption helps enrich a better environment for investments in the Kingdom.
Consolidating his power, the crown prince has also given the anti-corruption committee many rights in order to impose the rule of law, which includes the right to issue arrest warrants, enforce travel restrictions and freeze bank accounts. It can also block the transfer of funds or the liquidation of assets, until the judiciary takes over the case.
Due to these arrests and the Cabinet reshuffle, the stock market fell in early trade, the next day. According to Reuters, after 8 minutes of trade, the Saudi equities index was down 1.5 percent. Prince Waleed Ibn Talal’s Investment firm Kingdom Holding dropped 9.9 percent after his detention. This drop was probably predicted beforehand in the Investment conference.
These arrests are suggested to have a connection to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, surprise visit to Saudi Arabia last week. Considering that Trump spoke to King Salman on Saturday about listing Saudi’s enormous state-owned oil corporation, Saudi Aramco, in the United States.