A US-based lawsuit against Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman centered on a Caribbean oil refinery, but unexpectedly highlighted something else — the disappearance of his main rival.
Former Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, unseated as heir to the throne by his cousin Prince Mohammad in 2017, has not been seen in public since his detention in March last year.
Bin Nayef, long seen as the CIA’s most trusted Saudi Arabian ally, served as the kingdom’s interior minister from 2012 before becoming crown prince three years later.
Photo: AFP / HO / SPA
The lawsuit pointed to Saudi Arabian government efforts to keep a tight lid on his whereabouts, with documents showing that the detained royal was represented by a US law firm that works for his rival.
The man behind the lawsuit, Saudi Arabian businessman Nader Turki Aldossari, is barred from leaving the kingdom along with his family members, according to letters from his lawyer to US President Joe Biden and other US officials.
The story began in June last year, when Aldossari filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania on behalf of his son Rakan, a US citizen, against bin Nayef and other Saudi Arabian entities.
Aldossari alleged that they had failed to honor a decades-old contract related to a refinery project in the Caribbean nation of Saint Lucia.
However, the case posed a peculiar conundrum: How to serve a summons to a prince whose whereabouts were unknown?
The suit was amended to include Prince Mohammad, stating that he had placed bin Nayef under house arrest and seized his assets, thus preventing him from meeting his contractual obligations.
When Aldossari said that a summons could not be served against bin Nayef, the court ordered Prince Mohammad’s lawyers to help ascertain his location.
In March, Prince Mohammad’s counsel offered to provide bin Nayef’s address on a “confidential basis,” saying in a court filing that he faced terrorism-related threats due to his previous role as interior minister.
There was no mention of him being detained.
Aldossari’s counsel said that Prince Mohammad was “holding the former crown prince under house arrest.”
Bin “Nayef is effectively a prisoner of ... Saudi Arabia,” he said in a filing.
However, last month, the judge threw out Aldossari’s breach-of-contract case, leaving the questions of bin Nayef’s status and whereabouts unresolved.
Aldossari’s lawyer James Tallman told reported that he plans to appeal — as well as fight his own clients’ travel ban, which he fears “could escalate to detention.”
Saudi Arabian authorities have not publicly commented on the detention of bin Nayef.
Prince Mohammad has detained or sidelined multiple royal rivals in his rise to become the kingdom’s de facto ruler, but a particular target has been bin Nayef, who enjoys “much more support within the royal family,” said Bruce Riedel, a former long-serving CIA officer.
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