Manama: Saudi businessman Prince Khalid Bin Talal has been released from detention.
His son Mohammad posted two pictures of his father visiting his son Waleed who has been in coma for more than a decade at a hospital in Riyadh, with the comment “Thank God for your safety.”
His niece, Reem, the daughter of billionaire businessman Al Waleed Bin Talal, also posted pictures of her uncle 11 months after he was last seen in public, alongside relatives. She too thanked God for her uncle’s safety.
No reasons were ever given for his detention or for his release.
Prince Khalid’s brother Prince Al Waleed was among the 381 high-profile figures, including some of the kingdom’s richest individuals, ministers and officials, detained for several weeks on graft charges at the Ritz Carlton, which had been converted into a posh prison.
The action and charges followed the formation one year ago of an anti-graft committee headed by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
It comprised the President of the Control and Investigation Board, the President of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the President of the General Auditing Bureau, the Attorney General at the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the head of the Presidency of State Security.
Saudi Arabia said that the committee was part of “an active reform agenda aimed at tackling a persistent problem that has hindered development efforts in the kingdom in recent decades”.
In April, Attorney General Saud Al Mojeb said that 56 corruption suspects were still being held on graft charges.
Out of court settlements with the other suspects had topped SR400 billion in various forms of assets, which include real estate, commercial entities, securities and cash, he said.
