Night of the beating': details emerge of Riyadh Ritz-Carlton purge

Exclusive: three years on, some of the Saudi detainees reveal what they say took place.......

In early November 2017, nearly 400 of Saudi Arabia’s most powerful people, among them princes, tycoons and ministers, were rounded up and detained in the Ritz-Carlton hotel, in what became the biggest and most contentious purge in the modern kingdom’s history.

The arrests shook the foundations of Saudi society, in an instant turning untouchable establishment figures into targets for arrest. Statuses were discarded, assets seized and business empires upended. A conventional pact between the state and its influential elite was shredded overnight.

Now, leading figures caught up in the detentions have revealed details of what they say took place. The former detainees, many of whom were stripped of fortunes, portray a scene of torture and coercion, and of royal court advisers leading chaotic attempts to understand the investments behind the wealth of the kingdom’s most influential families, then seizing what they could find.

The accounts of what occurred in the Ritz, provided through an intermediary, are from some of the most senior Saudi business figures, who claim to have been beaten and intimidated by security officers, under the supervision of two ministers, both close confidantes of the man who ordered the purge, the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

The disclosures come on the third anniversary of the purge and ahead of the G20 summit in Riyadh this weekend, which the Covid-19 pandemic has turned from a global showpiece into a giant webinar. Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler, will also from January face a new US president who is likely to eschew the wholesale cover provided by the Trump administration in favour of a more conventional approach that pays some heed to human rights issues.

Looking for Clinton Foundation donations?

EX-US President Bill Clinton, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his brother, who is also the Saudi
Ambassador to the US, Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, March 29, 2018 Embassy of Saudi Arabia

Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States. During his tenure, he visited Saudi Arabia in 1994 and met with King Fahd, who was the brother of the current king, King Salman. Clinton's tenure was marked with a number of important events in the Middle East, like the 2000 Camp David Summit, between Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat, as well as the Oslo Accords, signed in 1993 and 1995.

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NYT TIMES 1993 ---- One of President Clinton's college classmates at Georgetown University was Prince Turki bin Feisal. Today Prince Turki is the head of the Saudi Arabian intelligence service. The two stay in touch, an Administration official said.

As Governor of Arkansas, Mr. Clinton worked hard to secure a multimillion-dollar Saudi donation to a Middle Eastern studies program at the University of Arkansas, said Bernard Madison, the dean of the university's Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

The discussions about the donation began in 1989. They involved Americans with ties to both the Saudis and Mr. Clinton; officials of Stephens Group Inc., the Arkansas business empire that has provided crucial financial assistance to Mr. Clinton; and David Edwards, an investment banker in Little Rock who has Saudi clients and is a friend of Mr. Clinton.

Mr. Clinton's efforts included a 1991 meeting with Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi Ambassador, the dean said. According to Mr. Madison, the Saudis did not give their first donation to the university -- a $3.5 million gift -- until last summer.

Mr. Madison said: "The gulf war intervened. It was put on hold. They didn't have a lot of money."

One week after he was elected President, Mr. Clinton discussed the donation as part of a telephone conversation he had with Saudi Arabia's monarch, King Fahd, according to a spokesman for Mr. Clinton.

Another $20 million arrived in February, a few weeks after President Clinton's inauguration, Mr. Madison said.

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