Amr Al Madani, the CEO of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), the Saudi agency established in July 2017 to preserve and develop the 2,000-year-old archaeological and historical site of Al-‘Ula in the northwestern part of the country, was arrested on Sunday 28 January over allegations of corruption. Al Madani has been at the helm of the project since the founding of the royal commission managing it and described it to Arab News as an ‘open, living museum’. By 2035 the Saudi Arabian government is foreseen to invest $20 billion into the AlUla project. The ambitious cultural programming at AlUla, involves contemporary art programmes as well as what Chair of the Royal Commission for AlUla’s Public Art Expert Panel Iwona Blazwick describes as a ‘much bigger cultural master plan which involves archaeology and shining a spotlight on prehistoric and historic civilisations such as the Nabataeans’. The historical site plays an important role in the Vision 2030 project developed by Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.
The charges against Al Madani predate his work on AlUla. He is accused of illegally obtaining contracts from the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, a scientific research and government organisation in Riyadh. The contracts, worth $55 million, went to a company he is an owner of, the National Talents Company. Sources told Abu Dhabi newspaper The National that three of Al Madani’s partners have also been arrested and confessed.
