Crown Prince says 95% of suspects in graft probe opt to settle

Nearly 95 percent of the 200 detained as part of Saudi’s recent anti-corruption investigation have agreed to settlements, which require them to hand over cash or shares of their business to the state treasury in order to avoid trial, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Thomas Friedman in an interview with The New York Times.

“We show them all the files that we have and as soon as they see those about 95 percent agree to a settlement,” Prince Mohammed said. “About 1 percent are able to prove they are clean and their case is dropped right there. About 4 percent say they are not corrupt and with their lawyers want to go to court.”

According to the public prosecutor, Prince Mohammed said the state could receive around $100 billion in settlements.

“We have experts making sure no businesses are bankrupted in the process,” he added.

Earlier this month, the Kingdom’s newly formed anti-corruption committee called for the detention of 208 people, including princes, businessmen and senior officials. Seven of them were later released without charge.

In the interview with NYT, Prince Mohammed also called widespread claims that the anti-corruption campaign was actually a power grab “ludicrous.”

“Our country has suffered a lot from corruption from the 1980s until today. The calculation of our experts is that roughly 10 percent of all government spending was siphoned off by corruption each year, from the top levels to the bottom,” he said.

He pointed out that many prominent members of those detained had publicly pledged their loyalty to him and his reforms, and that “a majority of the royal family” is behind him.

Talking about foreign policy and the recent events in Beirut, the Crown Prince said Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is not going to continue providing political cover for a government that is essentially controlled by the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia. The Prime Minister, however, revoked his earlier resignation this week, and said he will continue to serve on the Lebanese government.

On the topic of Iran, the Crown Prince referred to the supreme leader of Iran as “the new Hitler of the Middle East.”

“But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesn’t work. We don’t want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East,” he added.

He added that the Saudi-led war in Yemen was moving in the direction of the legitimate government, which controls 85 percent of the country.

Prince Mohammed also praised US President Donald Trump as “the right person at the right time.”