CAIRO (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s 84-year-old ruler, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, left King Faisal hospital in the capital Riyadh after recovery, state news agency SPA reported on Thursday.
The Saudi king, the custodian of Islam’s holiest sites, was admitted to hospital on July 20 to undergo medical checks, after suffering from inflammation of the gall bladder, which he had removed later that week.
In a video released by SPA, the king could be seen walking steadily out of hospital, followed by several aides and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, wearing a face mask. The king was walking with a cane, as he usually does.
The king, who has ruled the world’s largest oil exporter and close U.S. ally since 2015, chaired a meeting via video from hospital last week before his surgery. In a video aired by state media outlets, he could be seen reading and leafing through documents. Reuters could not independently verify the date the footage was filmed.
(Reporting by Hesham Abdul Khalek and Ahmed Tolba; writing by Raya Jalabi Editing by Franklin Paul and Grant McCool)
