Trump administration weighs immunity for Saudi crown prince
Saad al-Jabri alleged that Mohammed bin Salman has led an attempt to lure him back to the kingdom and kill him.
The Trump administration is reportedly weighing the possibility of granting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman immunity in federal litigation brought by a dissident Saudi official who alleges the kingdom’s de facto ruler dispatched a team of men to Canada to assassinate him.
Saad bin Khalid al-Jabri, a former senior aide to former Saudi Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef, accused the crown prince in August of attempting to kill him. Jabri fled the kingdom in 2017, shortly before Mohammed bin Salman replaced Mohammed bin Nayef as crown prince.
Riyadh asked the US State Department in October to grant Mohammed bin Salman immunity in Jabri’s complaint, which had been filed in the US District Court of the District of Columbia.
Such a move could create precedent for courts to toss out other criminal allegations against bin Salman, including for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, according to The New York Times, which reported the immunity consideration.
