Prince Sultan filed a criminal complaint in Switzerland against his cousin Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahd, as well as the current Saudi minister of Islamic affairs, Saleh al-Sheikh, over the alleged abduction, which took place just outside Geneva in 2003, British newspaper Guardian reported on Friday.
According to Pierre de Preux, Prince Sultan’s lawyer, Swiss Prosecutor Stéphane Grodecki has ordered a criminal investigation into the case.
“A complaint has been filed on behalf of Prince Sultan in Geneva,” Preux said, adding, “A criminal investigation has started and is going on.”
Prince Sultan’s claim relates to a chain of events stretching back to early 2000s. He came to brief public prominence in 2002 when he promised to reveal the full extent of corruption among Saudi monarchy and issued a public call for reform.
In June 2003, Prince Sultan attended an event at a palace owned by members of the Saudi royal family in the Swiss municipality of Collonge-Bellerive, just outside Geneva, along with the two accused.
He said following the private meeting with Prince Abdulaziz and Saleh al-Sheikh, five masked men knocked him unconscious, anesthetized him, taken him to a Boeing 747 waiting at the Geneva airport, and flew him to the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The abducted prince spent five days at a hospital due to medical complications and was later held at the high security al-Hai’r prison. He was then placed under house arrest for several years in Riyadh.
The prince made an unexpected partial recovery and escaped Saudi custody late in 2010.
Sources say a blame game has played out in the royal family over the kidnapping ever since Prince Sultan’s father, Prince Turki bin Abdulaziz, found out about his son’s ordeal.
Mutual finger pointing has stalled all attempts at solving the dispute for several years.
Prince Sultan also alleges many organizations in the Saudi government as well as some of the most important and influential princes in the royal family had a hand in his abduction.
Experts believe that the case has also the potential to spark a diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and Switzerland.