October 22, 2011 (Al Jazeera)
October 22, 2011 (Al Jazeera)
Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, the 83-year-old defence minister and first in line of succession to become king of Saudi Arabia, has died, according to Saudi media reports.
Sultan was on a visit to the United States for medical tests when he died, CNN reported.
Analysts believed he had been suffering from a form of dementia, and a March 2009 US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks said he was “for all intents and purposes incapacitated”.
He received a diagnosis of colon cancer in 2004.
With Sultan’s death, half brother Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, the longtime minister of interior, becomes next in line to rule after King Abdullah.
Sultan’s official birthday in the kingdom is January 5, 1928, but some Western analysts believe he was actually born in 1924.
