Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Saudi Arabia 'sent mysterious security team to Norway,' where critic of Crown Prince lives in exile


https://news.yahoo.com/saudi-arabia-sent-mysterious-security-135343779.html

 

The Telegraph
James Rothwell
Tue, December 15, 2020, 8:53 AM EST

Saudi Arabia sought to deploy a ten-man security team with diplomatic immunity to Norway in an attempt to target a critic of Mohammad bin Salman, the Kingdom's Crown Prince, according to Norwegian media reports.

Dagbladet, one of Norway's largest newspapers, reported that Saudi Arabia requested in the summer of 2018 that all members of the "mysterious" team were granted diplomatic immunity - but Norwegian authorities refused.


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It added that Iyad el-Baghdadi, a prominent critic of the Crown Prince living in exile in Norway, had been warned about the Saudi request by Norwegian authorities.  The CIA has also reportedly warned him about a potential threat from Saudi Arabia.

Mr Baghdadi has previously said that he fears recriminations by Saudi Arabia against him and his family, but the Kingdom denies this.

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The security team request was issued in the same year that Saudi agents murdered Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, in the Kingdom’s Istanbul consulate. Saudi Arabia has condemned the killing, which it says was carried out by rogue agents.

In an interview with Dagbladet, Mr Baghdadi said he fears for his safety and suggested that Saudi forces may have sought to target him because he was a friend of Khashoggi.

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