Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Prince Ahmed is supposedly the 31st son of King Abdulaziz.

Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (احمد بن عبد العزيز آل سعود Aḥmed bin ʿAbdulʿazīz Āl Suʿūd; born 5 September 1942) is a member of House of Saud who served as deputy minister of interior from 1975 to 2012 and briefly as minister of interior in 2012.

Prince Ahmed was born in Riyadh on 5 September 1942.

He is the son of King Abdulaziz and Hassa bint Ahmed Al Sudairi and the youngest of the Sudairi brothers.

Ahmed bin Abdulaziz completed secondary education in 1961.

He studied English and some science subjects at the University of Southern California (USC).

He joined University of Redlands in 1962 and graduated in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in government and political science.

After his graduation, Prince Ahmed dealt with business and was the chairman of the National Gypsum Company from 1969 to 1970.

In 1971, he was appointed the undersecretary of Makkah Province.

He also served as the deputy governor of Makkah Province during the reign of King Faisal.

Later, King Khalid appointed him as the deputy minister of interior on 16 December 1975, and he remained in office until 18 June 2012 when he was named interior minister.

His main function as deputy interior minister was to deal with the different provinces of the Kingdom.

Ahmed bin Abdulaziz was also operational head of special security force, which reports directly to the interior minister.

This force was established in 1979 after the poor performance of the SANG at the Grand Mosque Seizure in Makkah.

In fact, this task was given him in the wake of the riots experienced in the province in 1979 to make observations about the effects of the Iranian Revolution and the Shi’ite dissention on the security of oil industry.

Prince Ahmad openly declared that the Saudi government had neglected the region and had actively discriminated against its Shi’ite population.

He also promised massive investments in the development of Al Hasa's economic infrastructure, educational system, and other services.

The other task of Prince Ahmed as deputy interior minister was to coordinate the contacts with ulema (the religious leaders).

He also served as the vice president of the supreme commission for industrial security and chairman of preparatory committee for national security.

In addition, he was the deputy chairman of civil defense council.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi stated that Prince Ahmed was mostly involved in administrative matters instead of security during his tenure as deputy interior minister.

Prince Ahmed was given the task of introducing reforms in the Eastern Province during the early 1980s to improve the province where the kingdom's Shi’ite minority lives.

Prince Ahmed was also seen as one of the potential candidates to the Saudi throne at the beginning of the 2000s.

Nawaf E. Obaid argued in 2002 that three members of the House of Saud were especially popular, although many of them were believed to be corrupt.

Prince Ahmed was one of these popular members; the others were Crown Prince Abdullah and Riyadh governor Prince Salman.

Ahmed bin Abdulaziz visited Pakistan in November 2005 for three days and examined the extent of destruction caused by the Kashmir earthquake from an airplane.

Prince Ahmed was appointed interior minister on 18 June 2012 after the death of Interior Minister Prince Nayef.

Abdul Rahman Al Rabiaan succeeded him as deputy interior minister.

It was reported that Prince Ahmed would not change the major security policies of Saudi Arabia since the country experienced a threat from Al Qaeda in Yemen and an unrest among its Shi'ite Muslim minority.

His appointment as interior minister was also regarded at the time as a move signalling that he was the most likely candidate to rule Saudi Arabia after King Abdullah and Crown Prince Salman.

Prince Ahmed was the chairman of the supreme hajj committee during his term as interior minister.

However, Prince Ahmed's tenure only lasted until 5 November 2012, and he was succeeded by Mohammed bin Nayef, who had been deputy interior minister.

The official reason for Prince Ahmed's removal was given as his request.

However, his objection to dividing the security forces into independent units was one of the actual reasons for his dismissal.

However, on 5 November 2012 he was sidelined in the sense that he was left without any major job, and on 1 February 2013 Prince Muqrin was appointed second deputy prime minister and on 27 March 2014 to the new position of deputy crown prince.

As of 2015 Prince Ahmed was still the favourite crown prince of the reformists who argued that Prince Ahmed held a more legitimate claim to the throne by birthright.

He was detained in March 2020 on the orders of his brother and nephew, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, respectively, and charged with treason.

On 7 March 2020 Prince Ahmed was arrested along with his son Nayef and his nephews, Mohammed bin Nayef and Nawwaf bin Nayef.

The Saudi government claimed that the princes were plotting to overthrow King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Together with Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Prince Ahmed was reported to pay massive bonuses to successful security officers, but they also had a reputation for honesty and using the massive security budget only for the mission and not to enrich themselves.