£8bn sheik accused of funding Al Qaeda

PRINCE CHARLES’S billionaire benefactor – one of the world’s wealthiest men – was once called ‘the man who bought London’.

Between 2007 and 2013 Sheik Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani – known as HBJ – was the prime minister of Qatar, where he once faced controversy over claims that the gas-rich state sponsored terrorism.

HBJ conceded that Qatar ‘maybe’ financed the Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, while he was in office, but insisted he knew nothing about it. These days the 62-yearold, whose personal fortune is thought to exceed £8billion, lives in splendour in London where he has diplomatic immunity, including protection from being sued.

While head of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, he bought Harrods and The Shard, and a Belgravia mansion from media tycoons Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay for an estimated £150 million in 2016. The year before, he bought a controlling stake in Maybourne Hotel Group, which owns London’s Claridge’s, Berkeley and Connaught, from the Barclays.

During the bidding for this year’s World Cup, Qatar was accused of bribery and influence peddling. HBJ was PM and foreign minister, but his role in the process, if any, was not scrutinised. In 2016 it was suggested he could be drawn into high-profile investigations into the awarding of the World Cup and the controversial billionpound bailout of Barclays bank if he lost his diplomatic immunity.

Lawyers for Fawaz al-Attiya, a British citizen and former spokesman of the emirate, claimed in the High Court that HBJ became a diplomat in London after leaving office to shield himself from claims that he was responsible for their client’s kidnap and torture. The sheik and state of Qatar denied wrongdoing. HBJ argued that he was covered by diplomatic and state immunity so English courts had no jurisdiction over the case. The court ruled in his favour.

He is said to have used his fortune to cultivate Britain’s most powerful institutions, notably the Royal Family. Some claim he personifies the influx of Middle Eastern petro-dollars into London.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by HBJ, but he admits some of his fortune might have dubious origins, once saying: ‘The wealth I have – like any Qataris have – might be... legitimate, but by your standards you will say there is a question.’