Saudi Arabian billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has been freed after a high-profile detention during a crackdown on corruption, describing his arrest as a "misunderstanding."
Speaking to Reuters just ahead of his release Saturday, Alwaleed said that there were no charges against him following his arrest as part of a nationwide crackdown on corruption last November.
"There are no charges. There are just some discussions between me and the government. Rest assured this is a clean operation that we have and we're just in discussion with the government on various matters that I cannot divulge right now. But rest assured we are at the end of the whole story. And I'm very comfortable because I'm in my country, I'm in my city, so I feel at home. It's no problem at all. Everything's fine," he said.
The interview, given from his suite in the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh where he and many other of the detainees had been kept for the last two months, was the first that the prince had given since being detained.
$100 billion embezzlement
In the November crackdown, the Saudi government arrested and detained several hundred businessmen, senior officials and Saudi royals like Alwaleed, many within the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Multiple reports, citing anonymous sources, have suggested that detainees handed over assets in order to buy their freedom.
Alwaleed, the billionaire owner of international investment company Kingdom Holding, told Reuters that he had accepted the interview request with the news agency because he was upset by media reports that had suggested he'd been sent to prison and tortured. "All lies. It's very unfortunate," he said.
The crackdown was overseen by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who is leading a reform drive in the country aimed at diversifying the economy away from oil and reforming Saudi society.
