King of Jordan amassed £70m secret property

The King of Jordan secretly spent more than £70m ($100m) on a property empire in the UK and US.

Leaked financial documents identify a network of secretly-owned firms used by Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein to buy 15 homes since he assumed power in 1999.

They included houses in Malibu, and in London and Ascot in the UK.

Lawyers for King Abdullah said he used his personal wealth to buy the homes and there was nothing improper about him using offshore firms to do so.

Jordan receives substantial international aid, including from the US and UK. The UK government is one of the regime's biggest financial backers, doubling its funding to £650m over five years in 2019.

And King Abdullah is seen as a moderate Western ally in the Middle East.

But his property interests have been built up between 2003 and 2017 as he has been accused of presiding over an authoritarian regime at home - with protests taking place in recent years at a time of austerity measures and tax rises.