‘Evidence’ of Saudi prince role in Khashoggi case

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UN calls for ‘follow-up criminal investigation’ into journalist’s death

Jamal Khashoggi waskilled in the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should be investigated over the grisly killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi because there is “credible evidence” that he andother senior officials were responsible, a UN expert has concluded.

Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said Khashoggi, a veteran journalist, was the “victim of a deliberate, premeditated execution, anextrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible underinternational human rights law”.

After a six-monthinvestigation, Ms Callamard said in a report that “this human rights inquiry has shown that there is sufficient credible evidence regarding theresponsibility of the crown prince demanding further investigation”.

The 101-page report concludes with a dozen recommendations, including a call for UN secretary general António Guterres to initiate a “follow-up criminalinvestigation”.

Saudi Arabia said onWednesday that the report included “clear contradictions and baseless claims”and contained “nothing new”.

The killing of Khashoggi, whose body Turkish and Saudi officials said was dismembered after he was killed, triggered Saudi Arabia’s biggest diplomatic crisis since the September 2001 attacks on the US. Riyadh has been desperate to put the killing behind itand refocus attention on Prince Mohammed’s ambitious reform programme tooverhaul the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy.

Prince Mohammed has repeatedly denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s death in the Saudi consulatein Istanbul in October. Riyadh has blamed his killing on a rogue operation andhas put 11 Saudi suspects on trial.

Ms Callamard wasgranted access to some recordings of conversations inside the consulate, according to the report, but she was not allowed to obtain a copy of therecordings or a transcript. “The Turkish authorities undoubtedly have moreinformation and intelligence about events in the Saudi consulate than they werewilling or able to share with the inquiry,” the report said.

In the report, MsCallamard noted the “extreme sensitivity” of considering the criminalresponsibility of the crown prince and his top aide Saud al-Qahtani, a senioradviser to the Saudi royal court who has not been charged.

“No conclusion ismade as to guilt,” she wrote. “The only conclusion made is that there iscredible evidence meriting further investigation, by a proper authority, as towhether the threshold of criminal responsibility has been met” for the two men.

Mr Qahtani is amongmore than a dozen Saudi officials sanctioned by the US and several European countries in the aftermath of Khashoggi’s killing. Ms Callamard recommended that “such sanctions ought also to include the crown prince and his personalassets abroad” until and unless he can prove he has no responsibility.

Mr Qahtani, who was considered the crown prince’s enforcer, was dismissed in the wake of the journalist’s killing, but Saudi activists fear he is still close to the royalcourt.

Recordings of conversation sinside the consulate on the day of Khashoggi’s killing include a discussion ofcutting up his body just minutes before he arrived, the report said.

“The body is heavy,”said one Saudi official, according to the rapporteur. “First time I cut on the ground.If we take plastic bags and cut it into pieces, it will be finished. We willwrap each of them.”

Inside the building Khashoggi is recorded saying: “There is a towel here. Are you going to give medrugs?” A Saudi official replies: “We will anaesthetise you.”

While Saudi Arabia’s European allies expressed concern in the months following the killing, thecrown prince has continued to enjoy strong support from US President DonaldTrump despite the CIA reportedly concluding that it was authorised by the kingdom’sde facto leader.

Tamara Cofman Wittes, a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the BrookingsInstitution, said the UN report would renew international focus on the crimeand accountability for violations of international law and norms.

“The Trump administration’s continued dodging of this issue by pointing to the kingdom’sown inadequate and incomplete investigation and its secretive trial of some officials has never been credible to the Congress or the US public,” she said.“The kingdom created this crisis in relations, but the administration has madeit worse.”

Foreign business executives and financiers who snubbed the kingdom’s top investment forum a fewweeks after the killing returned to Riyadh in April for a financial conference organised by the government and pledged their commitment to continue workingwith Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia questioned the report’s credibility. Adel al-Jubeir, the kingdom’s stateminister for foreign affairs, said on Twitter there was “nothing new” in thereport, which he called “nonbinding”.

He rejected what hesaid was an attempt to influence Saudi legal proceedings. “We reaffirm that the kingdom’s sovereignty and the authority of its judiciary over this case arenon-negotiable.”

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ssangra

The prince is modernist in outlook having being brought up that way by a rather modern educated mother. He naturally has enemies among his own family who want to harm him. Someone killed the man and wants to use it as a tool to destroy the new ruler The motive is the key to the killer. The journalist was playing both sides for money. He was getting bribed by the americans and was demanding money from the saudians. For both sides he was better dead than alive...So no guesses as to who knocked him off.

As regards Trump and america, truth is relative, relative to how many dollars you can give them and how big a mkt your country is for defence equipment , arms and ammunition and other junk retail stuff.

BTW Nostradamus spoke about a Mabus from the middleeast who will start Armageddon, he may have meant MBS Mohd Bin Salman.