Saudi 'Tiger Squad' assassins tried to enter Canada to kill dissident Saad Aljabri: U.S. lawsuit

EDMONTON — A Saudi dissident and former spymaster, exiled in Canada, was hunted by a squad of assassins from his homeland, less than two weeks after a Saudi team butchered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, says a lawsuit filed in the United States.

The lawsuit says the “Tiger Squad” — part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s personal mercenary group — tried to enter Canada on tourist visas in October 2018 to kill Saad Aljabri. But having lied about not knowing one another, and then when border guards found photos of them together, they were denied entry to Canada.

“Having failed to finish the job in Canada, (bin Salman) continues in his attempted extrajudicial killing to this day,” say court documents. “In recent months, Defendant bin Salman obtained a fatwa directed at Dr. Saad — in this case, a ruling by religious authorities endorsing the killing of Dr. Saad.”

The lawsuit detailing the attempts on Aljabri’s life is the latest escalation in a campaign undertaken by the Kingdom to force Aljabri, who’s well-known and respected in Western intelligence circles, to return to Saudi Arabia.

Since 2017, Aljabri has quietly been living in Canada after fleeing Saudi Arabia following a tumultuous coup over the Saudi throne, and the series of purges that followed. The lawsuit also says that Aljabri is now a permanent resident in Canada.

It also comes as there is significant ongoing tension between the Canadian and Saudi governments.

Indeed, reports emerged earlier this summer of Saudi attempts to coerce another Saudi dissident living in Canada, Omar Abdulaziz, to return to the country, after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned him he might be in danger.

The pressure campaigns — sometimes escalating from intimidation to assassination — used against dissidents abroad is hardly an unusual tactic of the Saudi government, experts have told the National Post in interviews.

Most infamously, the Crown Prince bin Salman has been implicated in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, killed in October 2018; Saudi Arabia blames rogue agents for the killing and sentenced five to death for their role in it.

The new lawsuit filed in Washington says that bin Salman firmly believes it was Aljabri who contributed to the Central Intelligence Agency’s November 2018 conclusion that it was in fact the Saudi government behind Khashoggi’s death.

“Accordingly, to Defendant bin Salman, the threat posed by Dr. Saad to Defendant bin Salman’s standing in the United States is an urgent and ongoing one,” the lawsuit says.

Aljabri was the right-hand man of Mohammed bin Nayef, who’s the nephew of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. In a palace coup, bin Nayef was deposed in favour of Mohammed bin Salman, making Aljabri a target for the new regime, a source close to the Aljabri family told the Post earlier this year.

The lawsuit — and interviews with family sources — suggest that Aljabri “was privy to sensitive information about (bin Salman’s) covert political scheming … corrupt business dealings, and creation of a team of personal mercenaries that (he) would later use to carry out the extrajudicial killing of Jamal Khashoggi, among others.”

Those things, the lawsuit claims, are enough to “existentially alter” Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the United States’ government.

In March 2020, bin Nayef, along with several others, were rounded up on suspicion of plotting a coup against bin Salman; a few days later, Aljabri’s two children — who had been barred from leaving the country in 2017 — also vanished and in May, Reuters reported, Aljabri’s brother also disappeared.

But now, for the first time, court documents detail Saudi actions far beyond what has previously been reported. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Among the allegations is the claim that other relatives of Aljabri’s have been “arrested, detained, and tortured” to try and get him to return to Saudi Arabia.

According to a Reuters report on the international drama, the pressure campaign was upped in May when Aljabri’s brother was also detained. The Reuters report says Mohammed bin Salman — the Crown Prince is often referred to as MBS — is after documents detailing financial dealings of senior royals, including King Salman, and information on assets of those opposed to MBS, including bin Nayef.

• Email: tdawson@postmedia.com | Twitter: tylerrdawson