Saudi investor ploughs millions into liberal icon of UK media

‘A mysterious Saudi-based investor has ploughed millions of dollars into a British news organisation renowned for championing liberal causes, in a move that will enrage human rights and media freedom campaigners.
Sultan Mohamed Abuljadayel, 42, listed in company records as a Saudi-based Saudi Arabian national, has acquired up to 50 percent of the Independent website, whose newspaper shook Britain’s journalism establishment in the 1980s before struggling financially and ditching the printed word in 2016.
According to registers updated on Companies House on Friday, Abuljadayel controls up to 50 percent of voting rights within Independent Digital News and Media, the company that controls the Independent brand.
An informed Saudi source described Abuljadayel to Middle East Eye as coming from an “established business family based in Medina”.
He now sits with Evgeny Lebedev, the son of a Soviet KGB spy turned Russian oligarch, as a “person of significant control” in the company. Justin Byam Shaw, described by close associates as a “serial entrepreneur,” is a third.’
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