Saudi prince linked to Savoy held in corruption purge

A SAUDI prince worth £13billion – including a share of the Savoy Hotel in London – has been detained in a purge of the country’s elite.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, 62, also has major holdings in Twitter, Apple, Citibank, and the Four Seasons and Movenpick hotel chains.

Now he has been swept up in a crackdown on corruption initiated by Saudi Arabia’s heir to the throne Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 32.

Prince Alwaleed was among 11 princes, four ministers, and ‘dozens’ of ex- ministers detained. The leaders of the national guard and navy were also changed.

The weekend move is seen as a bid to strengthen the Crown Prince’s grip on power as he seeks to transform his country into a modern nation.

Crown Prince Salman was little known overseas until 2015 – but then his father became king. Last month he announced plans to make Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading oil exporter, a ‘country of moderate Islam open to all religions’.

But the detention of Prince Alwaleed has worried investors overseas, with shares in his finance company Kingdom Holding falling sharply.

He memorably told Vanity Fair in 2013 that he was happy to take risks with investments, saying: ‘I don’t make mistakes. I make blunders.

‘When you make a mistake you lose $10million, $50million, but when you make a mistake of $200million to $500million, or $1billion, that’s a blunder.’