Lawsuit claims Saudi prince sent hit team to Canada

TRENTON, Canada

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince dispatched a hit squad to Canada to kill a former top Saudi intelligence agent, a lawsuit filed Thursday in a US district court claims.

In a 106-page filing, Saad Aljabri said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants him killed because he knows too much about the prince’s allegedly corrupt business dealings as well as the setting up of a group of mercenaries called the Tiger Squad. Aljabri is a permanent resident of Canada.

The 39-year veteran of Saudi intelligence said the Tiger Squad killed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Turkey in 2018.

In the filing, he added that he has a close working relationship with American intelligence and through revelations can damage the crown prince’s reputation in Washington by airing the prince’s dirty laundry.

“Few places hold more sensitive, humiliating and damning information about defendant bin Salman than the mind and memory of Dr. Saad – except perhaps the recordings Dr. Saad made in anticipation of his killing,” the court document states. “That is why defendant bin Salman wants him dead, and why defendant bin Salman has worked to achieve that objective over the last three years.”

The Canadian government refused to comment on the lawsuit, but Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said the government knew of situations where foreign entities had threatened Canadians, as well as people residing in the country.

“It is completely unacceptable, and we will never tolerate foreign actors threatening Canada’s national security or the safety of our citizens and residents,” Blair said in a statement.

Aljabri fled Saudi Arabia in 2017, defecting to Turkey and then Toronto, where he resides.

This is not the first time the crown prince is alleged to have targeted a Canadian resident for killing.

On June 22, a story by Anadolu Agency detailed how Omar Abdulaziz, a prominent critic of Saudi Arabia who is now in exile in Canada, incurred the wrath of the Kingdom's crown prince, and Canadian authorities warned he may be imminently marked for assassination or kidnapping by the Saudis.

He also fled to Canada and now has a YouTube satire program noted for its criticism of the Kingdom.