The daughter of an outspoken former Saudi spy told CNN that she was nearly targeted at the same Turkish consulate where Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered.
Speaking to CNN, Hissah Al-Muzaini, whose father Saad Aljabri told CBS News’ 60 Minutes that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was a “psychopath” who wanted to get a poison ring from Russia to kill King Abdullah, said she was also a target. She told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that kingdom officials had urged her to go the fateful Istanbul site.
“They tried to encourage me to go there,” she said. “I’m lucky I didn’t go or else my kids wouldn’t have a mum and dad.”
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Al-Muzaini, who is one of Aljabri’s eight children, filed a civil suit against bin Salman, known as MBS, who she blames for plotting to kill her in a revenge attack against her father, who is living in Canada.
Aljabri has also filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. that alleges MBS sent a kill team to Canada to murder him. Aljabri worked for the kingdom’s previous crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, before he was deposed in 2017. He’s told CBS he has many damning secrets that MBS would like to keep quiet.
Khashoggi was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 and never seen again. Surveillance inside the consulate exposed the dissident writer’s grisly murder and dismemberment.
Two of Aljabri’s other children, Sarah and Omar, are in prison in Saudi Arabia and Al-Muzaini says her husband, Salem, has been “kidnapped” by MBS as pressure mounts to get Aljabri to return to the kingdom. Records show her husband was arrested last year.
“We’ve been living a real-life nightmare for the past four years,” she told CNN. “Imagine yourself, your dad has been targeted with hit squads, your siblings [have been] imprisoned and accused of things they’ve never done ... your husband being imprisoned, kidnapped, and then tortured.” She also said her husband was “coerced” under torture to sign over all his assets and wealth to win his freedom when he was previously arrested in 2017 as part of a dubious “anti-corruption” shakedown MBS ordered at the time at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton.
Al-Muzaini said MBS is fearful of information her father has, telling CNN “We live in fear. We always look over our shoulder. We don’t feel safe. I don’t know how we can feel safe when people like this are chasing family members and sending hit squads and killing people in embassies and consulates.”
Saudi officials say Aljabri is a “discredited former government official with a long history of fabricating and creating distractions to hide the financial crimes he committed, which amount to billions of dollars, to furnish a lavish lifestyle for himself and his family.”
Aljabri denied those claims to CBS.
