Faisal bin Musaid Al Saud ( ar, فيصل بن مساعد آل سعود, ''Fayṣal bin Musāʿid ʾĀl Suʿūd''; 4 April 194418 June 1975) was the assassin and nephew of King

Faisal of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, فيصل بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود ''Fayṣal ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd'', Najdi Arabic pronunciation: ; 14 April 1906 – 25 March 1975) was a Saudi Arabian statesman and diplomat who was ...

Early life

Faisal bin Musa'id was born in 1944. His father was Prince Musa'id bin Abdulaziz, the paternal half-brother to six Saudi kings including King Faisal. His mother was Watfa, a daughter of Muhammad bin Talāl, the 12th and last Rashidi emir. Musa'id and Wafta later divorced. Prince Faisal and his siblings were much closer to their maternal Rashidi relatives than their paternal Al Saud relatives. In 1965, Faisal's older brother Khaled was shot and killed by a Saudi police officer while he led an assault on a new television station in

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...

that had been recently founded by King Faisal. Some people opposed the establishment of a national television service, as they believed it immoral to produce images of humans. While that is the official version, the details of his death are disputed and some reports allege that he actually died resisting arrest outside his own home. Regardless, no investigation over his death was ever initiated. Faisal had two other full siblings, Prince Bandar and Princess Al Jawhara. Saudi businessman Abdul Rahman bin Musa'id Al Saud is his half-brother.

Education

Faisal arrived in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1966 and attended

San Francisco State College San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

for two semesters studying English. Allis Bens, director of the American Language Institute at San Francisco State, said, "He was friendly and polite and very well brought up, it seemed to me." While Faisal was at San Francisco State, his brother Khaled was killed. After leaving San Francisco State College, Faisal went to the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

and then to the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...

. He was described by his peers as " quiet, likable, notably unstudious young man". University of Colorado Professor Edward Rozek, who had taught him in three comparative government courses, described him as "academically a D and a C student". In 1969, while in Boulder, he was arrested for conspiring to sell

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

. He pleaded guilty and was placed on probation for one year. In May 1970, the district attorney dropped the charges. In 1971, he received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Colorado and then returned to the San Francisco Bay area. At the University of California at Berkeley, he enrolled in graduate courses in political science, but did not receive a master's degree.

After the United States

After leaving the United States, he went to

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

. For unknown reasons, he also went to

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. When he came back to Saudi Arabia, Saudi authorities seized his passport because of his troubles abroad. He began teaching at

Riyadh University King Saud University (KSU, ar, جامعة الملك سعود) is a public university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Established in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdulaziz to address the country's skilled worker shortage, it is the first university in the ...

and kept in touch with his girlfriend, Christine Surma, who was 26 at the time of the assassination. Surma viewed the Saudi interest "in achieving peace with

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

" as a positive outcome "not available with the previous ruler King Faisal".

Assassination and trial

Royal Palace shooting

On 25 March 1975, Prince Faisal went to the Royal Palace in

, where King Faisal was holding a meeting, known as a majlis. He joined a

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

i delegation and lined up to meet the king. The king recognized his nephew and bent his head forward, so that the younger Faisal could kiss the king's head in a sign of respect. The prince took out a revolver from his robe and shot the King twice in the head. His third shot missed and he threw the gun away. King Faisal fell to the floor. Bodyguards with swords and submachine guns arrested the prince. The king was quickly rushed to a hospital but doctors were unable to save him. Saudi television crews captured the entire assassination on camera.

Imprisonment and execution

Initial reports described Faisal bin Musaid as "mentally deranged". He was moved to a Riyadh prison. However, he was later deemed sane to be tried. A sharia court found Faisal guilty of the king's murder on 18 June, and his public execution occurred hours later. Cars with loudspeakers drove around Riyadh publicly announcing the verdict and his imminent execution, and crowds gathered in the square. Faisal was led by a soldier to the execution point and was reported to have walked unsteadily. Wearing white robes and blindfolded, Faisal was beheaded with a single sweep of a gold-handled sword.

Motives

Aside from the death of his brother, his other possible motivations remain unknown, but other motives have been proposed. Saudi officials began to state that the prince's actions were deliberate and planned. Rumours suggested that the prince had told his mother about his assassination plans, who in turn told King Faisal who responded that "if it is Allah's will, then it would happen". Arab media implied that the prince had been an agent of the U.S.

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

and Israel’s Mossad. Following these types of claims, a theory started in Iranian media mentioned that he might have been manipulated by his Western girlfriend (Christine Surma) who, it was alleged, might have been

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and secretly an asset for the Israeli intelligence services. The rumor was briefly taken seriously by Saudi Arabian officials who informally contacted Surma to question her regarding the assassination at which point she revealed she was not Jewish and that she was as puzzled as everyone else regarding the actions of Faisal. Beirut newspapers offered three different explanations for the attack. ''

An-Nahar ''An-Nahar'' ( ar, النهار, lit=The Day or The Morning) is a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper published in Lebanon. In the 1980s, ''An-Nahar'' was described by the ''New York Times'' and ''Time Magazine'' as the newspaper of record ...

'' reported that the attack may have been possible vengeance for the dethroning of

King Saud Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, سعود بن عبد العزيز آل سعود ''Suʿūd ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd'', Najdi Arabic pronunciation: ; 15 January 1902 – 23 February 1969) was King of Saudi Arabia from 9 November 1953 ...

, because Faisal was scheduled to marry Saud's daughter, Princess Sita, in the same week. ''An-Nahar'' also reported that King Faisal had ignored his repeated complaints that his $3,500 monthly allowance ($16,700/month in 2020 dollars, $200,500/year) was insufficient and this may have prompted the assassination. ''Al Bayrak'' reported that according to reliable Saudi sources, King Faisal prohibited him from leaving the country because of his excessive consumption of alcohol and other drugs and the attack may have been a retaliation against the ban.