RIYADH— Saudi Arabia's King Salman has dismissed the
director of public security, Khalid bin Qarar Al-Harbi, ordering his
investigation on corruption charges, state media reported Wednesday.
اضافة اعلان
"Khaled Al-Harbi's service has been terminated by referring him to
retirement and to an investigation," said the official Saudi Press Agency,
citing a royal decree.
Harbi — along with 18 others in both the private and public sectors — has
been accused of embezzling public money, forgery, bribery, and abuse of
influence, it added.
Harbi has been the kingdom's director of public security since December
2018, and he had previously been the commander of special emergency forces,
according to local media.
The kingdom announced Tuesday night that it has uncovered more than dozen
cases of corruption — one of which involved a national security official — in
recent months, for sums worth $77.3 million.
Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, the king's son, launched in
2017 a vast anti-corruption campaign shortly after his appointment as crown
prince.
The campaign saw Riyadh's luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel serve for three months
as a makeshift detention center for dozens of princes and senior officials
suspected of graft or disloyalty.
Already viewed as the de facto ruler controlling all the major levers of
government, from defense to the economy, Prince Mohammed is widely seen to be
stamping out traces of internal dissent.
Saudi authorities have allocated a toll-free hotline for residents to report
any suspicious corruption activity, with banners across the kingdom urging
people to cooperate with the anti-corruption campaign.
Saudi Arabia, which ranks 51 out of 180 countries on Transparency International's
corruption index, has for decades faced endemic graft and the deeply ingrained
social practice of "wasta", or using influence and personal
connections to get ahead.
Prince Mohammed told the advisory Shura Council in 2019 that the
anti-corruption campaign had yielded $66 billion over the past three years in
addition to assets, real estate, and stocks worth billions more.
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