Riyadh to release Saudi-Ethiopian tycoon detained in corruption crackdown

Saudi Arabia will soon release an Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire detained in November during a mass crackdown on corruption, Ethiopia's prime minister said.

Hundreds of people, including prominent Saudi businessmen and officials, were jailed at a luxury-hotel-turned-prison in Riyadh last November, during a crackdown spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who claims it was to tackle corruption.

Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi, the son of a Saudi father and an Ethiopian mother, was arrested as part of the mass detentions.

He invested heavily in construction, agriculture and mining in the Horn of Africa.

"The incarceration of one Ethiopian is the incarceration of all Ethiopians. Sheikh Al Amoudi's arrest is top in the agenda for all Ethiopians," Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.

"We have made the request - we are sure that he will be released very soon," he added.

Ahmed made the remarks late on Saturday after returning from the Gulf kingdom, where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a two-day visit.

On Friday, Ethiopia also announced that Saudi Arabia had agreed to release 1,000 Ethiopian nationals who have been in prison in the Gulf state for a variety of offences.

Officials in Riyadh are in the process of deporting more than 500,000 illegal Ethiopian migrants. So far, 160,000 have arrived back in the Horn of Africa country.

Critics have labelled Prince Mohammed's campaign a shakedown and power grab, but authorities insist the purge targeted endemic corruption as the country prepares for a post-oil era.

Human Rights Watch likened the mass arrests to "extortion" and said the alleged mistreatment was a "serious blow to Mohammad bin Salman's claims to be a modernising reformist".