Sufficient evidence exists to open an investigation into senior Saudi officials, including the Crown Prince, in the Khashoggi case, a UN human rights expert said Wednesday, calling on the UN chief to implement.
After investigating the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi for six months, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Agnès Callamard, said in a report that she “determined that there is credible evidence , justifying a further investigation into the individual responsibility of senior Saudi officials, including that of Crown Prince “Mohammed ben Salman, nicknamed MBS.
She cautioned against “the disproportionate importance attached to the identification of the perpetrator of the crime”, stressing that justice should not only establish the responsibility of the physical perpetrator.
A judicial inquiry “is also intended, if not primarily, to identify those persons who, in the context of the commission of a violation, have abused or failed to fulfill the responsibilities of their position of authority,” she argues. his report.
Callamard, who, like all other independent UN experts, does not speak on behalf of the United Nations, holds Saudi Arabia “responsible” for the journalist’s “extrajudicial execution” and criticizes Saudi power, who died brutally in January. October inside the consulate of his country in Istanbul.
After initially denying the murder, Ryad had advanced several conflicting versions and now claims that Khashoggi was killed in an unauthorized operation.
The UN expert calls on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to “open a follow-up criminal investigation into the assassination of Mr. Khashoggi in order to build solid files on each of the alleged perpetrators”.
The UN chief “should itself be able to open a follow-up international criminal investigation without a state having to intervene,” she notes.
Jamal Khashoggi, who had emigrated to the United States, was a critic of MBS.
According to press reports, the CIA believes that the assassination was probably sponsored by the Crown Prince, de facto ruler of the Saudi kingdom.
In the case before the Saudi courts, the prosecution has cleared the Crown Prince and blamed more than 20 people, claiming the death penalty for five men.
In her report, Ms. Callamard also asks the FBI to open an investigation into the journalist who was an American resident.
