The documents, which were filed earlier this year as part of a Canadian civil lawsuit, are marked as “Top Secret” and signed by a Saudi minister following the orders of the Crown Prince, the young de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. transferred.
“On the instructions of His Highness, Crown Prince,” the minister wrote in a translation, “he immediately approved the necessary procedures for this.”
The documentation sets out how the ownership of Sky Prime Aviation was ordered to transfer $ 400 billion in sovereign wealth fund to the country by the end of 2017. The company’s planes were later used in the October 2018 assassination of Khashoggi.
‘He would track down [the company] and would have been aware of how it was used, ‘said Dan Hoffman, the former director of the CIA’s Middle East Division, about the mighty Crown Prince. And this is just a possible proof that he has knowledge about this. Which has always been the argument. This is just another proof of that. ‘
Faisal Gill, a lawyer for Khashoggi’s former fiancé and a non-profit organization that has filed a federal lawsuit against MBS and two dozen co-accused, said his client was “pleasantly surprised” that bin Salman’s evidence control of Sky Prime Aviation has come to light. .
“Any evidence that basically connects MBS and others, especially along a direct line, is extremely important to us,” Gill said.
“[MBS] wanted to use a company he controls, in a fund he absolutely controls in the hopes that it would not come out, “Gill added. It’s for me not only a direct line for him that kills Jamal, but also a direct line from him trying to disguise it with the help of an airline over which he has absolute full control. ‘
According to the UN report, after Khashoggi was assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, the killers quickly escaped and boarded the planes. One jet, with the tail number HZ-SK1, had just landed that evening. An hour and fifteen minutes after landing, it was in the air again with six members of the Saudi team. Four and a half hours later, the second plane, tail number HZ-SK2, took off from Ataturk Airport with seven more men on board, according to the UN report.
The first plane flew through Cairo, the second through Dubai en route to Riyadh. The last two members of the hit team flew commercially from Istanbul to Riyadh.
Sky Prime Aviation was run by Aljabri’s son-in-law, Salem Almuzaini. According to an amended complaint that Aljabri filed against MBS in Washington DC this month, Almuzaini was abducted in Dubai in September 2017 and forcibly returned to Saudi Arabia.
The documents ordering the transfer of Sky Prime Aviation in December 2017 contain the Saudi Kingdom’s palm tree seal with crossed swords and the words ‘TOP SECRET NOT FOR CIRCULATION AND VERY URGENT’, according to the translation provided to the court. Another document showing the transfer of shares was signed by Almuzaini, whose current location is unknown.
Sky Prime Aviation, three of its Sky subsidiaries and 16 other companies were ordered to transfer by Alsheikh under the fund’s control.
It was so important to the Crown Prince that the fund take over the companies, Alsheikh wrote that “His Highness must be kept informed of what is being done.”