A United Nations rapporteur probing the murder in Turkey of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said Thursday the killing was planned and carried out by Saudi officials.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor and Saudi regime critic, was murdered at the ultra-conservative kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
“Evidence collected during my mission to Turkey shows prima facie case that Mr. Khashoggi was the victim of a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by officials of the state of Saudi Arabia,” Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said at the end of a visit to Turkey.
‘Irreversible Tragedy’
Turkish officials say he was killed by a team of 15 Saudis who strangled him at the mission, and media reports have said his body was cut up and dissolved in acid.
“The murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the sheer brutality of it has brought irreversible tragedy to his loved ones,” said Callamard.
In front of the White House where CPJ (@pressfreedom) is holding a press conference to demand #justiceforjamal and for the White House to respond to the Feb 8th Congressional deadline to determine possible sanctions on Mohammed Bin Salman #khashoggi pic.twitter.com/UGPiRYp4bL
— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) February 7, 2019
“It is also raising a number of international implications which demand the urgent attention of the international community including the United Nations.”
After denying the killing for two weeks, Riyadh finally described it as a “rogue” operation, maintaining that the Kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was not complicit in the operation.
It has arrested several senior Saudi officials, but the murder plunged the kingdom into one of its worst diplomatic crises.
Khashoggi’s body has still not been recovered.
He was visiting the consulate to obtain paperwork for his upcoming marriage to a Turkish woman.
‘Chilling, Gruesome Audio’
The rapporteur’s final report is scheduled to be presented in June before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, but is expected to be published a few weeks earlier, in late May.
In the report, the rapporteur will present a series of recommendations, which are not binding.
Callamard had met Istanbul’s chief prosecutor and the head of the Turkish secret service, as well as the Turkish foreign and justice ministers.
The statement did not say whether she had had access to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, as she had requested.
But Callamard’s team had access to “crucial information” about the journalist’s murder, including excerpts from an audio recording, described as “chilling and gruesome,” in the hands of the Turkish secret service.
Callamard said her team were unable to perform a “thorough review” of this material and she did not have the chance to authenticate the recording independently.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday accused the United States of maintaining “silence” on the murder, which has strained the kingdom’s ties with Washington.
“I cannot understand America’s silence … We want everything to be clarified because there is an atrocity, there is a murder,” Erdogan told an interview with state-run TRT television.
“The Khashoggi murder is not an ordinary one.”
Unhappy with Riyadh’s cooperation in the investigation, Ankara has called for an international inquiry.
Eleven men are on trial in Saudi Arabia, accused of involvement in the killing. The attorney general is seeking the death penalty for five of them.
More on the Subject
Two key U.S. Republican senators said after a briefing by the CIA’s director in December that they have “zero” doubt Saudi Arabia’s crown prince directed the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“I have zero question in my mind that the crown prince directed the murder and was kept appraised of the situation all the way through it,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker told reporters.
“If MBS were in front of a jury he’d be convicted in less than 30 minutes.”
In addition to passing a war powers resolution aimed at ending U.S. support for the Saudi-coalition fighting in Yemen, the lawmakers also unanimously passed a resolution declaring that it’s the consensus of the Senate that bin Salman is responsible for Khashoggi’s murder.
‘Zero’ Doubt Saudi Crown Prince Directed Khashoggi Murder: GOP Senators
