Prince Alwaleed bin Talal meets with PM Irakli Garibashvili in Tbilisi, 2015. (Facebook.)
TBILISI, DFWatch–One member the Saudi royal family who was arrested on Saturday night holds a title of honorary citizen of Georgia.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was arrested along with 16 other princes, four ministers and tens of other former or current high ranking officials.
He visited Georgia back in July, 2015 and met with then Prime Minister irakli Garibashvili and other Georgian officials, pledging to invest in the Georgian economy.
The prince also donated USD 300,000 to assist the victims of a deadly Tbilisi flood a few weeks before his visit.
During a pompous meeting with Georgian officials, he was awarded the title of “honorary citizen of Georgia”.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, 62, is grandson of Ibn Saud, the first Saudi king, and half-nephew of all Saudi kings since. He owns the investment firm Kingdom Holding and is one of the world’s richest men with a fortune of USD 18 billion, with stakes in Apple, Twitter, 21st Century Fox, Citigroup and other well-known companies. The prince also controls satellite television networks watched across the Arab world.
The series of arrests that shocked Saudi Arabia was connected with what seems to be infighting inside the royal family and is being attributed to the push by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son and top adviser of King Salman, to consolidate his power in the kingdom.
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