A US intelligence report implicates the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which occurred in 2018.
The declassified report, which was released by the government of President Joe Biden, points out that the prince approved a plan to capture or kill Khashoggi, who was of Saudi origin but in exile in the United States.
It is the first time that the United States publicly mentions the Saudi heir in relation to this case.
Bin Salman denies ordering this murder , which occurred at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Khashoggi He was a renowned journalist who had covered important events in the region for various Saudi media, including the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan or the rise of Osama bin Laden. But, in recent years he had become notorious for his criticism of the Saudi authorities.
In 2018, the US press reported that the CIA believed that the Saudi heir had ordered his assassination, but until now the US government had never publicly implicated him. Bin Salman.
It is anticipated that the New US President Joe Biden takes a tougher stance than Donald Trump, his predecessor in office, on human rights and the rule of law in Saudi Arabia, a key US ally in the Middle East.
During a phone call with the Saudi monarch, King Salman, Biden referred to “the importance that the United States places on human rights and the rule of law,” according to House Bla nca.
Sources cited by Reuters affirm that the Biden government is evaluating canceling agreements on the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia that could mean a risk in human rights terms, as well as limiting future sales of “defensive” weapons.
The Saudi authorities blamed an operation by a team of “rogue agents” for Khashoggi’s death. Turkey to bring him back to Saudi Arabia.
A court in that country tried and sentenced five people last September to 20 years in prison, modifying a previous sentence that ordered the death penalty.
In 2019 , UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard accused the Saudi state of the “deliberate and premeditated execution” of Khashoggi.
How did Khashoggi die?
In October 2018, Khashoggi, from 59 years old, he went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul with a view to obtaining some documents he required to marry his girlfriend.
Apparently, he had received guarantees from the then Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Prince Khalid bin Salman – brother of the crown prince – that it was safe to visit the consulate. Prince Khalid has denied having any communication with the journalist.
According to Saudi prosecutors, Khashoggi was forcibly immobilized after a fight with the agents, who injected him with a large quantity of a drug, which resulted in an overdose that led to his death . His body was later dismembered and turned over to a local “collaborator” outside the consulate, prosecutors said. His remains were never found.
Khashoggi’s girlfriend, who stayed outside the consulate while he did the paperwork, reported that was waiting for him for more than 10 hours but that he had never left there .
After the complaint and the scandal over the disappearance, the details of what happened with Khashoggi were known thanks to the transcripts of alleged recordings audio footage of the assassination obtained by Turkish intelligence.
Khashoggi had once been an adviser to the Saudi government and close to the royal family, but lost favor with the monarchy and went into exile in the United States in 2017 .
From there, he wrote a monthly column in the Washington Post in which he criticized the policies of Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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