Updated 4:25 p.m.

The FBI believes the Saudi Arabian government “almost certainly” helps its citizens flee the country after they are accused of serious crimes, “undermining the US judicial process,” according to a newly declassified document obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The surreptitious action is done, in part, to spare the wealthy Persian Gulf kingdom embarrassment, the FBI said. Intelligence officials believe the flights from justice will continue without intervention by the American authorities.

Saudi officials “are unlikely to alter this practice in the near term unless the US Government directly addresses this issue with (Saudi Arabia) and ties US cooperation on (Saudi) priorities to ceasing this activity," according to the FBI.

The details are contained in an intelligence bulletin dated Aug. 29. The FBI released the document Friday as part of a recent law pushed by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and signed by President Donald Trump last month that requires the FBI to publicly disclose what it knows about the Saudi government’s suspected role in helping its citizens avoid prosecution in the U.S.

The eight-page bulletin is heavily redacted and does not specify what the Saudi officials may have done, nor does it contain information about the size and scope of the practice.

But the document provides the first public acknowledgement by federal officials about the role Saudi operatives have likely played in the disappearance of numerous citizens who have gotten into legal trouble while in the U.S.

“I am shocked and appalled at what this memo describes,” said Wyden, whose office provided a copy of the document to The Oregonian/OregonLive. “The Trump administration is out of excuses for sitting on its hands while the Saudi government helps these fugitives evade justice.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The revelation comes a year after an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive found multiple cases where Saudi students studying throughout the U.S. vanished while facing manslaughter, sex crimes and other felony charges, with the suspected assistance of their government. The cases occurred under several U.S. administrations.

[Read The Oregonian/OregonLive’s investigative series “Fleeing Justice."]

The news organization revealed criminal cases involving at least seven Saudi nationals who disappeared from Oregon before they faced trial or completed their jail sentences on charges ranging from rape to manslaughter, including those who had surrendered their passports to authorities.

One of the suspects, 21-year-old Portland Community College student Abulrahman Sameer Noorah, vanished weeks before his 2017 trial in the hit-and-run death of 15-year-old Fallon Smart and later resurfaced in Saudi Arabia.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service told The Oregonian/OregonLive that they believed Noorah left his Southeast Portland neighborhood in a black SUV and later used an illicit passport and private plane — likely provided by the Saudi government — to flee.

The Oregonian/OregonLive’s investigation later found similar cases in at least seven other states — Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin — and Canada, bringing the total number of known Saudi suspects who have escaped to 25.

Some of the cases date back 30 years, suggesting the Saudi government had spent decades subverting the U.S. criminal justice system and leaving untold numbers of victims without any recourse.

In April, a story co-published by The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica showed how the FBI, Homeland Security and other agencies have been aware of the Saudi machinations since at least 2008 yet never intervened.

Though longtime allies, the United States and Saudi Arabia don’t share an extradition treaty. That makes the return of any Saudi suspect who has left the U.S. remote, if not impossible, without diplomatic or political pressure.

Despite documented cases around the country, Wyden and fellow U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., have been the only lawmakers in Washington to publicly raise concerns over the Saudi disappearances and demand action from the White House.

The pair have pressed federal agencies — including the Marshals Service, Customs and Border Protection and the departments of Justice, State and Homeland Security — for answers.

Those agencies have not been forthcoming with information, nor do they appear interested in probing the issue further, the Oregon lawmakers have said.

Wyden and Merkley also have sponsored bills that would require the federal government to look into the disappearances and to impose sanctions against any Saudi diplomat or official found to have assisted Saudi fugitives.

“I still want a better investigation of details in these cases,” Merkley said in an interview Friday. “What kind of flights were taken? What kind of paperwork do we think was invented?”

He added: “Unless we make it a real issue and elevate it to a key point of our relationship, the Saudis are going to keep doing what they’re doing.”

The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not respond to a request for comment. It has previously denied spiriting its citizens out of the U.S.

The FBI’s assessment, Wyden said, provides evidence that directly contradicts those denials.

“The Saudis are supposed to be our allies,” he said. “If these are our friends, who needs enemies?

Read The Oregonian/OregonLive’s investigative series “Fleeing Justice."

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

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