Confusion over Health of Detained Former Saudi Crown Prince

By Staff, Agencies

A tweet that was posted and then deleted by Saudi Arabia's Prison Authority, which falls under the kingdom's interior ministry, raised questions about the wellbeing of former Crown Prince Mohammad bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz who is thought to have been detained since March.

According to the now-deleted post, the senior prince and former minister of the interior had been transferred to intensive care after suffering a heart attack.

The tweet, which was published in the early hours of Sunday morning, denied the death of the senior royal, adding that a specialized medical team was working around the clock to attend to him.

After the tweet was removed, the Prison Authority posted another tweet saying that the security of its account had been breached, suggesting that the first post about the former crown prince has been published by hackers.

Mohammad bin Nayef, a one-time successor to the Saudi throne and close ally of the United States, was reportedly arrested in March, in what analysts suspected was an attempt by Mohammad Bin Salman to consolidate his reign in advance of a potential handover.

According to a Wall Street Journal newspaper report at the time, the former crown prince was arrested over accusations of plotting a coup against King Salman and his son MBS.