A former senior Saudi intelligence official, Saad Aljabri, who worked with the US on counterterrorism accused in an interview broadcast on Sunday that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed in 2014 killing the kingdom’s then-monarch King Abdullah.

Saad Aljabri was number two in Saudi intelligence, serving under the command of then intelligence chief Prince Mohammad bin Nayef.

Aljabri accused the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on ‘60 Minutes’ of bragging at a 2014 meeting with Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, then head of intelligence as interior minister, that he could kill then-King Abdullah, enabling his father to take the throne.

“He told him, ‘I want to assassinate King Abdullah. I get a poison ring from Russia. It’s enough for me just to shake hands with him and he will be done,’” alleged Al-Jabri on CBS’ Scott Pelley, adding that Saudi intelligence took the threat seriously at that time.

Incidentally, King Abdullah passed away in 2015 after being admitted to hospital with a lung infection, and his half-brother, Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s father, King Salman ascended the throne, BBC reported.

Saad Aljabri is 62 years old and married with eight children. He started as a cop but rose to the top of Saudi intelligence and earned a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence. He could be seen in the Oval Office, with American ambassadors, top US military commanders, and with Michael Morell, the former acting director of the CIA.

In 2007, Saad found himself on the wrong side of Prince Mohammed’s coup. The deposed Prince Nayef was Saad’s boss. Saad fled to Canada where he remains and refuses to return. Saad Aljabri has served under three kings and four crown princes for over two decades.

Prince Mohammed is 36 and wields almost unlimited power on behalf of his ailing 85-year-old father, King Salman.

Discrediting Saad Aljabri, a statement by the Saudi government said: “Saad Aljabri is a discredited former government official with a long history of fabricating and creating distractions to hide the financial crimes he committed … he implies that stealing was acceptable at the time. But it wasn’t acceptable nor legal then, and it isn’t now.”

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