RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi billionaire businessman Saleh Abdullah Kamel, founder of bank and real estate conglomerate Dallah Albaraka Group, died, according to relatives cited in the kingdom’s media.
Kamel’s relatives told The Associated Press that he died at Dr. Samir Abbas Hospital in Jiddah City, where he was transferred after an attack on the center on Tuesday morning.
Kamel’s business empire has grown since its humble beginnings in the last 1960s, while the kingdom used its oil wealth to grow and needed local businesses to build roads, roads and cities.
Over the years, the company has grown to tens of thousands of workers and now includes subsidiaries and stakes in a variety of activities, such as road and airport operations and maintenance, tourism, commerce, road transport and transport, telecommunications, media, agriculture, poultry. physical care.
Kamel’s son and executive director of the Dallah Albaraka group, Abdullah Kamel, quoted in the state newspaper Okaz, which oversees, said that funeral prayers will take place Tuesday afternoon at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which closed visitors amid the coronavirus pandemic. .
The fact that his funeral prayers are permitted in the mosque, which houses the holiest site of Islam, reflects the importance and stature of Kamel in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi television channel Al-Arabiya said Kamel, who was born in Mecca but founded in Jiddah, helped build many of the kingdom’s major ports and projects. He has served in administrators’ forums and served as President of the General Council of Islamic Banks. and the Jiddah Chamber of Commerce. It once had a significant stake in saudi broadcaster MBC, which owns and operates Al-Arabiya.
Al-Arabiya called him “the father of the new Islamic finance. “
His life, however, is not without controversy. After the 9/11 attacks, he and other prominent Saudi businessmen and princes were prosecuted for funding the attacks. The lawsuit passed through the U. S. District Court in New York in 2005.
The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that U. S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials have been able to do so. But it’s not the first time They had data linking the Dallah Albaraka organization to transactions through alleged Al Qaeda agents. However, U. S. officials showed no indication that Kamel or his son, Abdullah, knowingly helped al-Qaeda. or militant organizations.
Kamel was also reportedly swept away by the anti-corruption purge of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017. La Saudi Arabia’s unprecedented crackdown on the country’s most sensitive princes and businessmen being arrested at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, and many have been forced to point out billions of dollars in assets The Raid, which took place largely behind secret closed doors , helped the young crown prince consolidate his strength and was widely criticized through foreign rights groups.
In all Muslim countries and at home, Kamel cares a lot about philanthropy and charity.
A multimillion-dollar donation in 2010 created the Abdallah S Center. Kamel for the Study of Islamic Law and Civilization at Yale Law School in the United States.
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Aya Batrawy, editor of The Associated Press in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to the report.
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