EXCLUSIVE: Humiliation of the Saudi billionaire and his fellow princes photographed sleeping on bare mattresses after 'corruption' arrests as Trump says they 'have been milking their country for years!'
- Photograph exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com shows arrested princes and government ministers in their five-star hotel 'prison'
- Although no faces are shown Saudi government source says that the men on thin mattresses include Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, one of Middle East's richest men
- Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia ordered dramatic round-up of top princes and ministers in 'corruption probe'
- Donald Trump, on an extended tour of the Middle East, tweeted full-scale support for the crackdown saying: 'Some of those they are harshly treating have been “milking” their country for years!'
- But it is widely being seen as part of palace coup to guarantee his power base with the heads of the country's national guard and navy also arrested
- Some of them were in the hotel last month when it hosted international business figures for an investment conference but are now sleeping on the floor
Asleep on the floor of their 'luxury' five star prison 11 Saudi princes, government ministers and businessmen await their fate following their arrest in the biggest anti-corruption purge of the kingdom's modern history.
In a photo obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com the men are seen gathered together at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, inside one of its glittering function rooms - wrapped in blankets and sleeping on thin mattresses.
Saudi sources say that among those photographed in the room are billionaire investor Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who is a nephew of the king, worth an estimated $18 billion and owns stakes in Twitter, Lyft and Citigroup.
The photograph was revealed as President Trump went all-in supporting the man who ordered the mass arrests, Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the ferociously ambitious 32-year-old heir to the throne.
In two tweets sent as he prepared to leave Japan for South Korea on a lengthy Asian tour, he said: 'I have great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing....
'....Some of those they are harshly treating have been "milking" their country for years!'
The intervention places the U.S. squarely behind the crown prince and may be partly personally motivated: Prince Al-Waleed was a vocal personal critic of Trump in the run-up to his election.
The photograph of princes on bare mattresses show the depth of their fall. Although DailyMail.com has no way of verifying the claims from inside the closed kingdom, claims that the arrested men were being held at the Ritz Carlton have circulated widely.
Those arrested have been locked in the five star hotel as the sweeping anti-corruption probe ordered by Saudi King Salman's son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, continues.
Humiliation:
This image, passed to DailyMail.com by sources inside the Saudi
government, shows what were some of the country's most powerful men -
sleeping on thin mattresses in the function room of the Ritz Carlton
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