Oregon has passed a bill demanding that the FBI declassifies what it knows about the number of Saudi Arabian students who have been able to leave the US after being arrested for crimes including sexual assault and rape without ever facing justice.
The bill is the result of a lengthy campaign by The Oregonian which has chronicled how seven Saudi students have been able to leave the state despite being arrested for crimes in recent years.
The newspaper has also found similar cases in other states across the country.
Saudi Arabia has long denied helping students escape from America once they have been arrested, but lawmakers are now demanding to know what Washington knows about how they got out.
The students’ alleged crimes range from sexual assault and rape to fatal hit-and-runs.
Abulrahman Sameer Noorah is among the most notable of the students who fled the US after being charged with a crime. In 2016, he was charged with manslaughter for a fatal hit-and-run which killed a Portland teenager. The Saudi Arabian government posted his bond then, US officials say, put him on a private plane days later. He hasn’t been seen since
‘The American people deserve answers. These are not academic matters, and this is not about a series of victimless crimes.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden pushed the Saudi Fugitivies Declassification Act through the Oregon senate on Thursday
‘This is about manslaughter, rape and more. This is about real people, real families, who have suffered immeasurable pain,’ U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said on Thursday in an impassioned speech.
The bill is called the Saudi Fugitives Declassification Act.
It would require the FBI to reveal what it knows about the Saudi nationals who have mysteriously left the country after posting bail.
Among them is Abulrahman Sameer Noorah. He was facing a manslaughter trial for fatally running over Fallon Smart, a Portland teenager, in 2016.
Noorah had his $100,000 bond posted for him by the Saudi government.
His lawyer was also paid for by the government, and US officials say he was likely taken out of the country on a private plane that was again, paid for by his government.
As a matter of policy, the Saudi Arabian embassy says it pays the bail of any of its citizens – so long as they ask – in the US.
Along with Noorah, dozens of other students have been mysteriously spirited out of the country.
Abulrahman Sameer Noorah
Suliman Ali Algwaiz
Abulrahman Sameer Noorah – Fatal hit and run of Portland teenager
Noorah’s case sparked outrage in 2016.
He vanished just two weeks before he was due to stand trial on manslaughter charges for killing 15-year-old Fallon Smart with his car when she was crossing a road in Portland in August 2016.
Noorah had been released from jail at the time on a $100,000 bond that the Saudi consulate paid.
He vanished after being picked up from his college campus in a black SUV.
Suliman Ali Algwaiz – Drunken hit and run of a homeless person
Portland State University student Suliman Ali Algwaiz was arrested in August 2016 after he drunkenly struck a homeless man with his car.
The victim suffered a litany of injuries to his head and body.
Algwaiz fled the scene but was later sentenced to 90 days in jail.
Algwaiz was serving his sentence at weekends, but vanished before completing the 90 days and a warrant for his arrest is still outstanding.
Waleed Ali Alharthi
Waleed Ali Alharthi – Child porn
Alharthi who was an Oregon State University student, was found in possession of child porn in April 2015.
Police found pornographic videos on his laptop involving children. He was arrested and booked on 10 counts of encouraging child sex abuse. The consulate also put up the security deposit for his $500,000 bail.
Alharthi attended multiple court hearings related to his case but failed to attend a status check in April 2015.
His lawyer told the court that she feared he was dead but authorities learned he had flown from Mexico City to Paris the week before.
Abdulaziz Al Duways
Abdulaziz Al Duways – Rape
Duways was arrested in December 2014 over the rape of a female classmate at Western Oregon University.
Arrest affidavits related to his case show that the alleged victim accused Al Duways of giving her marijuana and whiskey shots prior to the attack.
She called 911 during the alleged attack and when police arrived they found her crying in his bed.
Al Duways had allegedly told her: ‘Tell them I’m your girlfriend’ and ‘I’ll give you anything. I’ll do anything if you don’t tell them’.
He was charged with rape and held on a $500,000 bond. Days later, a Saudi consulate official paid his bond and Al Duways vanished before he faced court.
In 2012, Oregon State University student Ali Hussain Alhamoud was charged with raping a young woman.
He was released on bail, which the Saudi government posted, and he flew back to Saudi Arabia that same day.
Mohammed Zuraibi Al-Zoabi
Mohammed Zuraibi Al-Zoabi – Sexual Assault
Al-Zoabi disappeared in December 2018 from Nova Scotia, Canada, after being charged with sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement of a woman between 2015-17.
Saud Alabdullatif – Rape and kidnap
of Spokane County, Washington, disappeared in May 2016. He was charged with forcible second-degree rape and unlawful imprisonment after he forced a woman to perform oral sex on him that month.
Sami Suliman Almezaini
Sami Suliman Almezaini – Rape
Almezaini was accused of raping his female roommate in July 2017, the same month he disappeared.
Faisal Altaleb – Sexual Assault
Altaleb disappeared from Montana, disappeared November 2016, after he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman he linked up with at a bar.
Abdullah Almakrami, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, disappeared one month after he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman at his apartment in March 2014.
Hani Alshammary – Sexual Assault
Alshammary is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in April 2014.
He was charged with attempted rape, forcible compulsion, unlawful restraint, harassment and disorderly conduct.
Ali Hussain Alhamoud
Ali Hussain Alhamoud – Sexual Assault and Rape
Alhamoud is accused of sexually assaulting a woman on Valentine’s Day in 2012 in Toledo, Ohio.
He was bailed out of county jail on charges including first degree rape.
The same day, he boarded a plane and left for Saudi Arabia.
Muqrin Majah Albalawi – Assault including stabbing another Saudi student in the shoulder
Albalawi was under investigation in Washington in 2016 when he boarded a plane back to Saudi Arabia.
He had been at a bar when he got in a fight with another student, followed him into the bathroom where he kicked down the door then beat and stabbed him in the shoulder.
Fahad Al Ghuwainem
Rashed Almarri, Abdulhadi Alras, Abdulhadi Binshafiah and Ali Binshafiah – Assault
Almarri, 28, Alras, 21, Binshafiah, 26, and Binshafiah, 21, were arrested in July 2015 after allegedly using pool cues, bottles and other makeshift weapons to attack multiple people in a bar near The University of Toledo after they refused to end their pool game at closing time.
Three people were hospitalized with injuries as a result. They fled the scene in a Porsche SUV.
But six days later, they were bailed out of jail by Bankers Insurance Co., which frequently does business with the Saudi Arabian government.
They then flew from Chicago to Qatar.
Fahad Al Ghuwainem – Rape at gay bar
Ghuwainem disappeared in December 2014, two months after he allegedly raped a man with male accomplice after the three linked up at a gay bar.