Source: Saudi investigated Palestinian billion over 1991 US deal

A source close to Palestinian-Jordanian businessman, Sabih Al-Masri, said Saudi authorities detained him weeks ago to investigate him on suspicion of corruption related to supplying food to the US-led coalition forces based in the Kingdom during the Gulf War in 1991.

The source, who asked not to be named, told Quds Press that Al-Masri received a phone call from the Saudi authorities during his recent visit to the Kingdom. “A Saudi official contacted him and asked him where he was and asked him not to leave his place before a police force arrested him and transferred to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel where Saudi authorities detained a large number of princes and prominent businessmen.”

“While at the hotel, the authorities confiscated all of his electronic devices and prevented him from bringing any of his personal belongings. When he asked to bring his suitcase containing his personal clothes, a personal tailor was sent to take his measurements and the clothes were ready within six hours,” the source said.

“The Saudi authorities followed a very strict procedure with regards to personal belongings. They refused to provide Al-Masri even with a razor, and instead offered to send a private barber, but Al-Masri refused.”

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According to the source, the interrogators’ questions focused on Al-Masri’s relationship with Saudi princes regarding a major deal to supply food to international troops based in the Kingdom during the Gulf War in which Al-Masri made nearly $1 billion.

“Al-Masri informed the authorities that the deal had no relation with any Saudi prince while all of his work in Saudi Arabia is concentrated in the private sector.”

The source explained that Al-Masri’s clear and transparent answers to the interrogators’ questions and Jordanian efforts contributed to his release.

Al-Masri belongs to a well-known family of merchants from Nablus city, north of the occupied West Bank. He was elected chairman of the Arab Bank in 2012 after the resignation of Abdul Hamid Shoman whose family founded the bank in Jerusalem in 1930.