Sultan bin Turki Al Saud (; born May 1968) is a member of the

Saudi royal family The House of Saud ( ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi State, (1727–1818), and his brothers, though the ruling fa ...

, a grandson of

King Abdulaziz Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (; 15 January 1875Ibn Saud's birth year has been a source of debate. It is generally accepted as 1876, although a few sources give it as 1880. According to British author Robert Lacey's book ''The Kingdom'', ...

. A critic of the Saudi government, he was kidnapped from Europe and brought to Saudi Arabia in 2016.

Personal life

Prince Sultan was born in May 1968. His father is known as "the second"

Turki Chagatai (, ), also known as Turki, Eastern Turkic, or Chagatai Turkic (), is an extinct Turkic language that was once widely spoken across Central Asia. It remained the shared literary language in the region until the early 20th century. It was ...

(الثاني ''ath thānī''), because he was the second son born to King Abdulaziz named "Turki". The first Prince Turki was Abdulaziz's first son who died in 1919 due to

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

. Sultan's mother is Noura, the daughter of

Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud ( ''ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAbd ar Raḥman Āl Suʿūd''; 1893 – 4 December 1976) was a Saudi Arabian statesman, soldier, and royal counsellor. He was a prominent advisor and member of the inner council of his eld ...

. Prince Sultan lived in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. He was married to

King Abdullah King Abdullah may refer to: *Abdullah II of Jordan (born 1962), king of Jordan since 1999 ** List of things named after King Abdullah II *Abdullah I of Jordan (1882–1951), king of Transjordan *Abdullah Khan II (1533/4–1598), ruler of the Khanat ...

's daughter, Princess Noura who died in 1990 in a car accident near Riyadh airport. He has one son named Mohammed bin Sultan from another marriage.

Kidnappings

In 2004, Prince Sultan accused the government of Saudi Arabia of kidnapping him in June 2003 in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

after he spoke out in favour of reform in Saudi Arabia. He was lured to a meeting in Geneva where he was drugged before being flown back to the Kingdom and was kept under house arrest in Riyadh. To finish the mission successfully, a Boeing 747 medical evacuation aircraft was sent especially for this purpose after sedating him. The aircraft arrived at

Geneva Airport Geneva Airport – formerly and still unofficially known as Cointrin Airport – is an international airport of Geneva, the second most populous city in Switzerland. It is located northwest of the city centre. It surpassed the 15-million-pas ...

a few days before the kidnapping operation, and was in a constant state of readiness. Another aircraft was sent to carry the personal effects, papers, files and documents of Prince Sultan, which were later confiscated from the hotel where he had been staying and taken to Riyadh. The aircraft was officially registered in Switzerland as part of the entourage of Prince

Abdul Aziz bin Fahd Abdulaziz bin Fahd Al Saud ( ''ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz bin Fahd Āl Suʿūd'') is a Saudi prince, a son of former King Fahd, and one of the grandsons of Saudi Arabia's founder King Abdulaziz. Early life and education His mother Al Jawhara bint Ibrah ...

, who was visiting Switzerland at the time. According to newspaper reports, on 1 February 2016 Prince Sultan was again kidnapped, with his entourage of about 20 people. They were on a flight from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

whose ostensible destination was Cairo: it was diverted to Riyadh where all were detained. After some days the non-Saudis in the party were released. In August 2017, Prince Sultan was apparently still in Saudi Arabia. The kidnapping was one of three disappearances of Saudi princes living in Europe that featured in the 2017

BBC News Channel The BBC News channel is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel owned and operated by the BBC. The channel is based at and broadcasts from Broadcasting House in the West End of London from which it is anchored during ...

documentary ''Kidnapped! Saudi Arabia's Missing Princes''. His kidnappings were described as one of many disappearances of members of the Saudi Royal family who have criticized the government or called for regime change.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saud, Sultan Turki 1968 births Saudi Arabian prisoners and detainees Living people

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

Kidnapping in the 2010s