princes? i needed to know what sultan had been doing in the months leading up to his disappearance. myjourney begins in the english seaside town of bournemouth. i have come to meet eddie ferreira, sultan's communications officer. i think they were very unhappy that he was opening the lid up, effectively, on the regime. in 2002, sultan went to europe for medical treatment. he also began giving interviews critical of the saudi government. sultan's comments were not welcomed in riyadh. i would make and receive

calls that a prince, and certainly in so doing i definitely picked up on the fact that there were members of the regime, the royal family, who were very very much against what he was doing. sultan said the saudis had frozen his assets so he could not pay his hotel bill or his staff. then came the meeting on the 12th ofjune. everybody was awake. prince sultan was as well. the tension started to ramp up, you could feel it in the air, it felt very much like it was going to be a make or break situation. eddie had no idea this would be the last time he would see sultan who was about to be abducted and flown back to riyadh. seven months later, injanuary 2004, the prince resurfaced. in a call to an arabic news channel, he said he was under house arrest.

he described his experiences and named those he had held responsible. years later, sultan approached clyde bergstresser, a lawyer in boston, and told him his story. it belies any credit to see that this was anything other than the abduction described by prince sultan. i interviewed ten witnesses, collected medical evidence, including a medical record from the hospital where he was admitted onjune 13 2003, which indicated he had been aspirated in geneva

and was being put on a medevac plane that was for some reason waiting at the airport. aspiration is the insertion of a tube into some of that to help them breathe. the hospital said this had been done to prince sultan, and that one side of him was paralysed, presumably because of the assault. as the hours passed, those waiting at the hotel became increasingly concerned. the silence became deafening. we could not reach the security team, that was the first real alert. we tried to contact them, could not get through, no response. we tried to contact the prince, no response, no answer. then in the afternoon, two unexpected

visitors arrived. the saudi ambassador to switzerland came in with the general manager of the hotel, and quite simply told everybody to vacate the penthouse and get out. the prince was in riyadh, our services were no longer required, and we could leave. we asked to speak to prince abdulaziz bin fahd and sheikh saleh al—sheikh. neither responded to our requests. ever since 1932, when king abdul aziz al—saud created saudi arabia, the country has been controlled as an absolute monarchy. its conservatism has driven some members of the royal family to live overseas. i am meeting another prince,

prince khaled bin farhan, whose branch of the family fell out of favour long ago, and who recently began to question the saudi regime as a whole. eventually he fled to germany where he claimed political asylum. according to prince khaled, the fate of the princes is decided at the very top of the saudi government. i wondered what it felt

like for khaled to be forced into exile, and unable to travel freely. this is prince turki bin bandar al—saud. once he was a major in the saudi police, which gave him access to highly sensitive information about the royal family. a bitter inheritance

dispute with the family landed turki in prison. on his release he fled to paris where he lived in this apartment. injune 2012 he began posting videos on youtube, in which he calls for reform in saudi arabia. turki also claimed to have some very damaging documents. he threatened to expose corruption at the royal family's highest levels. i have spent months tracking down people in paris who knew turki. most are reluctant to speak, saying they fear retribution from the saudi government. but i have finally had a break. wael al—khalaf is a blogger and activist who was a friend of turki's.

you watched turki bin bandar‘s videos. did you discuss them with him? the saudis reacted as they had with prince sultan and tried to persuade turki to return. when the deputy minister of the interior called, the prince recorded the conversation and posted it online. the saudis turned up the pressure, but turki refused to return. was he threatened? turki went on publishing videos untiljuly 2015.

then, sometime later that year, he disappeared. although wael believed turki had been kidnapped, i needed to find out more. so i asked prince khaled, who is still connected in saudi arabia. i searched the international media for news of turki. finally, i found this article in a moroccan newspaper. it says turki was about to leave morocco for france when he was arrested and jailed. then, following a request from the saudi authorities,

he was approved for deportation. if the article is accurate it looks like the government of morocco may have colluded with the saudi government to aid his deportation. the moroccan government declined to comment. without knowing what has happened to turki bin bandar, he added a note in a book that he gave to wael that reads like a prophecy. what do you believe happened to him? there is no proof that

turki has been executed. more likely, he has been in prison. but he is lower in the royal pecking order than sultan, so he is more vulnerable. after his return to riyadh, sultan was moved from house arrest to a high—security prison. his health deteriorated badly. fearing the possible consequences of his death, the family eventually allowed him to seek medical treatment in boston. what he did next must have horrified the saudis. he confided in me the details of the abduction that he described, that had occurred injune of 2003, in geneva. the details of which formed the basis of, eventually, a criminal complaint. in november 2014, sultan accused prince abdulaziz and sheikh saleh al—sheikh of being responsible for his kidnapping.

he gave testimony. clyde bergstresser was present. he said swiss authorities have done little in the case. nothing was done to pursue what occurred at that airport — who were the pilots, what were the flight plans, when these planes from saudi arabia arrived. this abduction occurred on swiss soil, and one would think that there would be an interest in finding out how that occurred. for the first time, a senior saudi royal was launching a criminal complaint in a western court against another family member. the pressure on the monarchy was mounting. i had heard about yet another saudi prince who had disappeared. saud bin saif al—nasr was a relatively minor royal, a playboy with a liking for europe's casinos and expensive hotels. but, in 2014, saud began tweeting

attacks on the saudi monarchy. translation: to those who say i am criticising people from my family, i say it is obligatory to state the truth. in september 2015, an anonymous saudi prince wrote two letters calling for a coup to remove king salman. the letters went online and were read by millions. this was an astonishing display of opposition. prince saud was the only royal to endorse the letters. this was tantamount to treason, and may have sealed his fate. a few days later, his twitter account fell silent. this tweet on 10 september was his last. translation: i call for the nation to turn the content of the letters into popular pressure.

i have made contact with a man who was in touch with saud in the days before his disappearance. he fears reprisals, so an actor speaks his words. despite saud's precautions, prince khaled believes he may have fallen into an elaborate trap. khaled fears that if saud is in riyadh, his life there may not be pleasant. we can't be sure what happened to prince saud, but we do know about prince sultan. injanuary 2016, he was staying in this exclusive palace hotel. he was about to visit his father in cairo. he was travelling with an entourage of about 18, including his personal doctor and nurses, and bodyguards from the us and europe. two of them tell us what happened. they fear reprisals, so we have hidden their identities,

and actors speak their words. the saudi consulate had offered sultan the use of a private jet. despite everything that had previously happened, he accepted. we pulled onto the tarmac, and in front of us was a huge aeroplane. it had the country of saudi arabia written on it. it was a little eerie, because there were a lot of crewmembers on board. all of them were male. the plane took off, with its in—flight monitors showing it was set for cairo. prince sultan said he was tired, and that he wanted to go to sleep, so one of the security members helped him to his room, and he went to lie down. 2.5 hours into the flight, all the monitors suddenly went blank. he woke up about an hour before we landed, and looked out of the window, and his

entire demeanour changed. he grew anxious. it wasn't untiljust before we landed that we realised we were in saudi arabia. as soon as the prince realised where we were, he got up without his walker, and was trying to get towards the door. the prince lashed out at the gentleman in front of him. sultan was banging on the cockpit door, and yelling for help. one crewmember ordered the prince's team to stay in their seats. they were about to land in riyadh. we looked out the window, and we just saw a bunch of people get out, with their rifles slung over their chest, and surrounded the plane. the soldiers and cabin crew dragged sultan from the plane. he was screaming at his team to call the us embassy.

it was a very chaotic, frightening atmosphere, because none of us really knew what was going on. the prince and his medical team were taken to a villa and put under armed guard. on the plane, the others waited nervously. then they came on with people with uniforms, with weapons. they told everyone, grab all your stuff and get off the plane. they took us to a hotel. everyone got a room, and theyjust said, we will talk to you soon. after three days in captivity, sultan's team were given back their passports and phones, and allowed to fly to destinations of their choice. i sat down in front of the saudi official. i actually recognised him, as he was one of the quote—unquote

"flight attendants" on the plane. he told us that we were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that he was sorry for the inconvenience. i wasn't inconvenienced, i was kidnapped. i was held against my will, in a country i didn't choose to go to. it was an astonishing situation. together with prince sultan, around 18 foreign nationals had been kidnapped and taken to saudi arabia. they had had their phones and passports confiscated, and were held by the saudi military. there has been no news of prince sultan since these events. his lawyer told the swiss prosecutor what had happened. he hoped something might finally be done about sultan's earlier complaint. as far as i know, he has done nothing to seek to get access to prince sultan in saudi arabia,

or any of the people against whom prince sultan complained for the 2003 abduction. instead, the swiss lawyer said he intended to suspend the prosecution, because prince sultan was not available. my understanding in swiss law is you have 15 years to complete a prosecution, 15 years from thatjune date in 2003. and it's a lengthy process, going through the entire prosecution. so effectively, by suspending the prosecution, it's really defeating the ability to, in a timely manner, pursue the prosecution. in effect, the legal action against sultan's alleged kidnappers will be allowed to expire. we asked the government of saudi arabia to respond to the allegations in this film. it declined to comment. meanwhile, prince khaled, now exiled in germany, fears he too may face the same fate as sultan.

we've had a below par temperatures over the last few days and it's been cooler than normal in september and there have been loads of showers. it is all to do with the jet stream. whenever it takes this meandering pattern across the north atlantic, that pattern becomes very slow—moving and doesn't change much. we have slow and low pressure and it's been heated by the relatively warm season, and that has produced showers. a similar forecast for monday and that feeds in the shower clouds to eastern areas and original high pressure on the western side means the weather should be largely dry. in the morning there could below cloud and mist and fog to clear and then we will see sunshine coming out. once again across central parts of england, the showers will break out. cloudier zones showers will break out. cloudier zones will slip into the far east of scotla nd zones will slip into the far east of scotland making it feel cool otherwise will be about 18 degrees.

on tuesday a ridge of high pressure builds across the uk meaning that it should be a decent day. a chilly start with temperatures near freezing but september sunshine to look forward to and we start to see a change to slightly milder air through tuesday night as south—westerly winds waft at atla ntic south—westerly winds waft at atlantic air across the uk which boosts the temperatures but we will also see rain moving into the north and west. temperatures in tuesday night are ten or 13 degrees and even in the countryside many of us have temperatures into double figures. quite a change on wednesday. u nsettled quite a change on wednesday. unsettled day with low pressure in the northwest and the slow band of rain coming in. mounting up across scotland, may be north—west wales, maybe a of localised flooding but when the cloud breaks it becomes warm and temperatures could reach the low 20s. slow—moving weather front makes its way towards eastern

england by thursday and at this stage we're not sure how heavy the rain will be and there might be not much left. the sunshine follows but then we will see showers in the north—west of the uk. temperatures are 15 degrees in north—western areas but relatively mild. through thursday night, the front clears away and is replaced by high pressure. the high pressure will settle the weather nicely and we could have mist and fog patches in the morning but plenty of sunshine as well. highs between 15 and 19 degrees and in the far north—west, a few spots of rain. beyond that, the next weekend and beyond into the following week we have to look out to the atlantic where we have a hurricane which will hit martinique and the dominican republic as we go through monday night, and another tropical system. all of this air is working northwards bringing some humid and warm air at times and it is colliding with cold air moving in from canada which could create a

nasty and deep area of low pressure, but as it doesn't exist, there is uncertainty about where it will end up uncertainty about where it will end up and how close the weather fronts will get to the north—west of the uk. but next weekend and the week after it looks like high pressure will build across the british isles, and with that, you will feel warmer, more settled conditions over this but there could be some rain at times across the far north and west of the country. that is your latest weather. goodbye for now. tonight at ten: the uk terror threat level has been reduced from critical to severe, meaning an attack is no longer considered imminent. the change by the government comes as a second man is arrested after a bomb was left on a london tube train. following the attack in parsons green last friday, the police have good progress with what is an ongoing operation. put your hands in the air! this, the moment police raided a house linked to a teenager suspected of planting the device.

both men remain in custody tonight. also on the programme: borisjohnson is accused of misusing official statistics after again claiming britain will save £350m a week by leaving the eu. counting the cost of hurricane irma in the british virgin islands — but another storm is on its way.