Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has arrested dozens of princes, senior military officers, businessmen and top officials, including a well-known royal billionaire with extensive holdings in Western companies, as part of a sweeping anti-corruption probe.
Prince Alwaleed, a nephew of the king and owner of investment firm Kingdom Holding, invests in firms such as Citigroup and Twitter. He was among 11 princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers detained, two senior officials told Reuters on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia said today that bank accounts of dozens of high-profile figures arrested in an anti-corruption sweep will be frozen.
"The accounts and balances of those detained will be revealed and frozen. Any asset or property related to these cases of corruption will be registered as state property," the kingdom's information ministry said.
The purge against the kingdom's political and business elite also targeted the head of the National Guard Prince Miteb bin Abdullah who was detained and replaced as minister of the powerful National Guard by Prince Khaled bin Ayyaf.
News of the purge came early on Sunday after King Salman decreed the creation of an anti-corruption committee chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed.
The new body was given broad powers to investigate cases, issue arrest warrants and travel restrictions, and seize assets.
"The homeland will not exist unless corruption is uprooted and the corrupt are held accountable," the royal decree said.
The royal decree said the arrests were in response to "exploitation by some of the weak souls who have put their own interests above the public interest, in order to, illicitly, accrue money."
Other detainees include former finance minister Ibrahim al-Assaf, a board member of national oil giant Saudi Aramco; ousted economy minister Adel Fakieh; former Riyadh governor Prince Turki bin Abdullah and Khalid al-Tuwaijiri, who headed the Royal Court under the late King Abdullah.
Bakr bin Laden, chairman of the big Saudi Binladin construction group, and Alwaleed al-Ibrahim, owner of the MBC television network, were also among those detained.
Many ordinary Saudis praised the crackdown as long-awaited.