http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Regional/2021/May-13/520086-saudi-releases-bin-laden-patriarch-held-in-ritz-crackdown-sources.ashx
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has released construction magnate Bakr bin Laden, more than three years after his detention in a purge of the kingdom's elite that upended his vast business empire, sources told AFP.
The former chairman of the Bin Laden Group, Saudi Arabia's biggest construction company, was reunited last week with his family in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after being freed from an undisclosed detention site, two people close to his family said.
It was unclear whether the release of Bakr, a tycoon in his 70s once seen as a major powerbroker, was provisional as his movements are still curtailed, one of the sources said.
"He was released and told to stay home," he said
"People are allowed to visit him."
The Bin Laden family, branded as the Rockefellers of Saudi Arabia for their sprawling infrastructure projects, reaped enormous wealth for decades on the back of their proximity to the Al Saud royal family.
But their fortunes tanked following the ascent of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has sought to remake the oil-reliant economy and dismantle top-down patronage networks that enriched a handful of elite families.