Saudi crown prince makes inappropriate jokes about kidnapping Lebanese PM after describing Khashoggi murder as a ‘heinous crime’
The comments came right after he slammed the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a 'heinous crime'
SAUDI Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman raised eyebrows yesterday when he joked about detaining Lebanon's prime minister.
'MBS' as he is popularly known quipped that Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri was free to leave Saudi Arabia following his detention in the kingdom last year.
Bin Salman, attending an international investment conference in Riyadh, said: "Prime Minister Saad is staying in the kingdom for two days so I hope you don’t spread rumours that he was kidnapped.
Hariri, sitting beside the crown prince, took part in the humour as the audience laughed. “With all my freedom,” he said.
Hariri, who has Saudi citizenship, was summoned to the kingdom a year ago, briefly detained and compelled to resign as prime minister in a speech read out on television from Saudi until France intervened to free him.
The Crown Prince's joshing comes amid mounting global pressure to provide a satisfactory answers to questions over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi, a prominent critic of MBS's regime, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2nd October.
Bin Salman said "justice will prevail" and the culprits punished.
Hours earlier US President Donald Trump told reporters that the crown prince bore ultimate responsibility for the operation that led to Khashoggi's killing.
The kingdom has survived other crises, including the fallout of the short-lived kidnapping of Hariri.
Hariri was verbally humiliated and beaten, according to eight Saudi, Arab and Western diplomatic sources.
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