Al Amoudi has not reached agreement with Saudi government; remains behind bar. His families reportedly arrested,too.
borkena
January 31,2018
If what the Middle East Monitor report published yesterday is right, and it has cited what it called Saudi whistleblower (Ahd Jadid) as a source, Ethiopian born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi failed to reach a settlement with Saudi Arabia government and is still behind bars. He was arrested in early November 2017 when Saudi government launched what it called anti-corruption crackdown and detained more than 381 businessmen,members of the royal family and former politicians.
The source went on to report that Saudi authorities arrested Al Amoudi’s families after he resisted to pay his way out of detention. However, the number of his families and their relation is unspecified.
Ethiopian news sources who claimed to have insider information reported over the weekend that he was released from prison.
According to Saudi news sources, the Saudi government released more than 85 percent of people who were detained in connection with corruption in November of 2017.
Prince bin Salman’s administration raised nearly US$1.7 billion in financial and asset settlement from most of those who were arrested at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh for more than two months.
There are still 56 businessmen and former authorities, including royal families, and the Saudi government has announced that it will transfer their cases to the public prosecutor.
Mohammed Al Amoudi is a staunch supporter of the regime in power and has over US$3.5 billion investment in Ethiopia in a range of investment areas. When Al Amoudi started his business in Ethiopia over two decades ago, his fortune was in the province of US $1.5 billion.
While Al Amoudi is known to have many critics, he has got a handful of supporters who hail him as a “nice person” on philanthropic grounds.
His investment in Ethiopia has opened employment opportunities for tens of thousands of people but more people are displaced from their places due to his investment especially his agricultural investment has brought about misery to many thousands of Ethiopians.
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