Abeer AlAkel has been named as acting chief executive of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) after the arrest of Amr Al Madani on allegations of corruption.
Ms AlAkel was chief of special initiatives and partnerships at the commission before her appointment on Monday.
She joined the RCU in 2017, having worked as a senior manager at consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers and as a senior executive at Saudi British Bank, now known as Saudi Awwal.
The kingdom's Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority, better known as Nazaha, said Mr Al Madani was detained over his alleged involvement in crimes of “abuse of authority and money laundering”.
The arrest makes him one of the more senior officials to have been named by Nazaha as part of its sweeping corruption clampdown, under which the authority has investigated and charged several billionaires, royals and government ministers over the past several years since its inception.
Before joining the government, Mr Al Madani is alleged to have illegally secured contracts for the benefit of the National Talents Company, in which he is one of the owners, from the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, a scientific research and government organisation in Riyadh.
This was allegedly achieved through the mediation of a relative, with the contracts valued at 206.6 million Saudi riyals ($55 million).
After joining the government, Mr Al Madani continued to hold a stake in the company, recommending it to RCU departments, it is alleged.
“He initially declared that he no longer had a relationship with the company and through that, a contract was made with the Royal Commission for AlUla,” Ahmed Al-Hussein, undersecretary and spokesman of Nazaha, told Saudi news channel Al Arabiya in an interview.
“But it became clear through our investigations that the aforementioned was still among the owners of the company because he was receiving the annual profits from the company and that his exit was only informal in nature.”
Several others were also arrested in relation to the same charge, Nazaha said.
AlUla, an ancient oasis city in the north-west, is undergoing a $15 billion transformation into a luxury travel destination as part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision to draw in about 70 million international tourists a year to the kingdom by 2030.
The 4,000-year-old heritage site has been redeveloped as an archaeological and cultural attraction.
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Wales 74-24 Tonga
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Italy 7-26 Australia
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- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
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- Torrijos Palace dome
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Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
National Editorial: Suleimani has been killed, now we must de-escalate
Mina Al Oraibi: Air strike casts a long shadow over the decade ahead
Jack Moore: Why the assassination is such a monumental gamble
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Damien McElroy: A CEO tasked with spreading Iran's influence
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Jack Moore: Why the assassination is such a monumental gamble
Damien McElroy: A CEO tasked with spreading Iran's influence
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
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Investing or establishing a business in Germany offers you a residence permit, which eventually leads to citizenship. The investment must meet an economic need and you have to have lived in Germany for five years to become a citizen.
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