Federal and state investigators pursuing leads in the killing of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements are exploring possible links between a prison gang and a Saudi man whose petition to be sent back home was denied by Clements just one week before his death.

Police say the man suspected of killing Clements on March 19 was parolee Evan Ebel, but in recent weeks they have shifted their attention to two major questions: Why? And did he have help?

They have interviewed dozens of people, including Ebel associates in the white-supremacist prison gang 211 Crew, and associates of Homaidan al-Turki, a Saudi national convicted of keeping his housekeeper a virtual slave in Colorado and sexually assaulting her. Al-Turki is serving an eight-year-to-life sentence at Limon Correctional Facility.

FBI agents are investigating any possible financial transactions between al-Turki and 211 Crew members to determine whether he had hired the gang for protection, among other things, sources told The Denver Post. Investigators are examining his bank records, prison financial accounts and prison commissary records. Investigators are also interviewing al-Turki associates who run errands for him outside of prison, one source said.

“The FBI is trying to trace the money,” the source said. “Al-Turki has tons of money in his bank accounts. He has operatives in the U.S. that he calls. He tells them to move money here or there. When he calls on a prison phone, it’s all recorded. We know he moves money from account to account.”

Hal Haddon, al-Turki’s Denver attorney, confirmed that investigators have questioned the Saudi’s associates, but he said such allegations are the product of “outrageous” speculation with no evidence to support such a theory. He said investigators have also asked witnesses whether Haddon or other attorneys could have been involved in a murder conspiracy.

Acting on al-Turki’s behalf, Haddon and other members of his legal team filed a lawsuit April 8 in Denver District Court alleging that al-Turki had been mistreated and isolated in prison since Clements’ death and that state officials were looking for signs of a murder conspiracy.

Within an hour after Clements’ murder, Gov. John Hickenlooper’s chief legal counsel Jack Finlaw called Haddon on his cellphone, apparently attempting to implicate him in the murder under the guise of informing him about the shooting, Haddon said Monday.

“Finlaw placed a ‘pretext call’ to Haddon purporting to convey this news and seeking to elicit information which could link Mr. Al-Turki and his lawyers to the murder,” the lawsuit says.

“I think it is disgraceful and outrageous and has no factual foundation,” Haddon said.

He said when he asked Finlaw what the call was for, Finlaw declined to answer.

“Hal Haddon was one of the many people I called that night to alert them to the news of Tom’s death,” Finlaw said in a statement to The Post. “I knew that Hal had been working on a legal matter with Tom, and I thought Hal deserved the courtesy of hearing this tragic news before it hit the media. That was the only reason for my call. I left Hal a voice mail. Hal returned the call a few days later and left a message. We did not talk either time.”

Haddon said al-Turki was a linguistics doctoral student at the University of Colorado and has no money. His family sends him money to buy canteen food including “pizza” and money for very expensive phone calls to Saudi Arabia. He added that the government of Saudi Arabia has also contributed to his support.

“He’s been in prison seven years,” Haddon said. “He is not a man of great means. He was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado.”

Any notion that al-Turki had money to pay for Clements’ murder is “nonsense,” said Haddon, one of the state’s top attorneys. Al-Turki also has other Colorado attorneys and lobbyists working on his behalf.

Al-Turki’s case has been followed closely by the Saudi government, and a 2010 YouTube video that urged President Obama to pardon al-Turki has received more than 1 million views. Colorado Attorney General John Suthers went to Saudi Arabia in 2006 and spoke to King Abdullah and others about al-Turki’s case.

While the investigation goes forward, several state and prison officials remain under protection out of fear that Clements’ murder was just one objective. Some officials insist on speaking on condition of anonymity about the case because of those fears.

FBI officials on Monday declined to comment on the investigation.

El Paso County sheriff’s officials have confirmed that al-Turki remains of interest in the Clements’ murder case.

“I don’t think that is a chapter that has been closed,” said Lt. Jeff Kramer, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators are looking at other possible angles and suspects as well, Kramer said. So far, all that is certain is that Ebel was involved, he said. The gun found in Ebel’s car in Texas following a shootout in which Ebel was killed was tied to the murders of pizza delivery driver Nathan Leon and Clements, Kramer said.

“Did he act alone or in concert with someone else,” he said. “I don’t think we’re leaning one way or the other.”

Sources say investigators believe that two 211 Crew members not only had contact with Ebel before Clements was killed, as has been reported, but afterwards as well, potentially reinforcing a theory of a conspiracy.

A veteran DOC correctional officer told The Post that he didn’t know if al-Turki had paid the 211 Crew for protection. But he said high-profile inmates whose criminal histories have been publicized, especially sex offenders, are often targeted by other inmates. The 211 Crew and other gangs offer them protection for a price.

“Or they’re dead men walking,” the officer said.

Haddon denied that his client paid the 211 Crew for protection.

Al-Turki, who ran a publishing business while living in Aurora, was accused of keeping his Indonesian housekeeper a virtual sex slave for more than four years. Al-Turki claimed his charges stemmed from anti-Muslim sentiment. He was convicted in state court in 2006 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft and extortion.

He applied for a transfer to serve the rest of his prison term in his native Saudi Arabia last year. The Saudi government sent letters asking Clements to approve the transfer, saying al-Turki would be evaluated at the Al-Malaz Prison in Riyadh, treated and possibly released on parole.

While evaluating al-Turki’s request, Clements at first was inclined to approve the transfer, Haddon said.

In a copy of a Jan. 16 e-mail from Clements to Finlaw, obtained by The Post, Clements wrote: “I signed the transfer letter Monday morning.”

But the e-mail also indicated that the FBI opposed the transfer and that Clements had reconsidered his decision. Federal officials have alleged that al-Turki has ties to terrorists, an accusation he and his lawyers have denied.

On March 11, Clements sent al-Turki a letter officially notifying him that he had denied the transfer request. Clements cited al-Turki’s failure to complete treatment that is required for Colorado inmates serving time for sexual assault before they’re released on parole.

In the hours after Clements’ death, al-Turki’s name came up as a possible suspect, and the Saudi was placed in protective custody at Limon. About 10 days ago, al-Turki was returned to a general population cell. But prison officials didn’t release him until al-Turki’s lawyers sued the state, Haddon said.

“It certainly suggests to me that they didn’t find anything,” he said.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kmitchelldp

Denver Post staff reporters Eric Gorski and Lynn Bartels contributed to this story.

Tom Clements

Colorado prisons chief

Since Clements was killed on March 19, detectives have interviewed more than 50 people — some of them Evan Ebel associates or fellow members of the white-supremacist 211 Crew prison gang. They have also interviewed associates of Homaidan al-Turki, a Saudi national who is imprisoned in Colorado. On March 11, Clements sent al-Turki a letter officially notifying him that he had denied his transfer request to Saudi Arabia.

Evan Ebel

211 Crew prison gang member

Investigators have tried to glean clues from the items discovered in the 1991 Cadillac DeVille that Ebel crashed in Wise County, Texas, where a deputy fatally shot him in a gunfight. Among them: the ingredients of pipe bombs, handwritten directions to Clements’ home, surveillance equipment and a digital voice recorder. Ebel entered Colorado prisons in 2005 after a series of assault and menacing charges. He was released Jan. 28.

Homaidan al-Turki

Saudi national

FBI agents are investigating any possible financial transactions between al-Turki and 211 Crew members to determine whether he had hired the gang for protection. Al-Turki, who ran a publishing business while living in Aurora, was accused of keeping his Indonesian housekeeper a virtual sex slave for more than four years. He was convicted in state court in 2006 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft and extortion.