Mohammed Bin Salman has been trying to address corruption, consolidate power, modernize as by giving women the right to drive and diversify beyond oil.
Via Express:
The handover would follow the arrests of 11 princes and four ministers in an anti-corruption crackdown which has been referred to a power grab.
Billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal who holds stakes in Twitter and Citigroup was among those locked up when the five-star Ritz Carlton was transformed into a prison.
Dozens of officials, business leaders and their families are being held in the luxury hotels with video emerging appearing to show them sleeping on the floor.
News of the purge came in the early hours of this morning after King Salman decreed the creation of an anti-corruption committee chaired by the 32-year-old Crown Prince, who has amassed power since rising from obscurity less than three years ago.
The new body was given broad powers to investigate cases, issue arrest warrants and travel restrictions and freeze assets.
The royal decree stated: “The homeland will not exist unless corruption is uprooted and the corrupt are held accountable.”
The news was followed by reports that Prince Mansour bin Moqren had died in a mysterious helicopter crash and reports that another prince had been killed in a gunfight that was later found to be false.