RIYADH: Asleep on the floor of their ‘luxury’ five-star prison, 11 Saudi princes, government ministers and businessmen await their fate following their arrest in the biggest anti-corruption purge of the kingdom’s modern history.
In a photo obtained exclusively by the Daily Mail newspaper, the men are seen gathered together at the Ritz Carlton Hotel here in the Saudi capital inside one of its glittering function rooms – wrapped in blankets and sleeping on thin mattresses.
Quoting Saudi sources, the paper reported that among those photographed in the room are billionaire investor Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who is a nephew of the king, worth an estimated $18 billion and owns stakes in Twitter, Lyft and Citigroup.
The photograph of the royals on bare mattresses show the depth of their fall. Although the paper has no way of verifying the claims from inside the kingdom, claims that the arrested men were being held at the Ritz Carlton have circulated widely.
Those arrested have been locked in the five-star hotel as the sweeping anti-corruption probe ordered by Prince Mohammed bin Salman continues. The photo shows their sleeping arrangements are far from luxurious. Ironically, they are huddled on the floor of one of the grand function rooms which last month played host to the Future Investment Conference.