Saudi crown prince 'approved' Khashoggi murder: US intelligence
27 February, 2021
A US intelligence report made consumer Friday (Feb 26) said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - a key figure in the US-Saudi relationship - "approved" the gruesome murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The prince, who's de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and because of dominate from the ailing King Salman, "approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to fully capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi," the report said.
The intelligence report said that given Prince Mohammed's influence, it had been "highly unlikely" that the 2018 murder could took place without his green light. The killing likewise fit a pattern of "the Crown Prince's support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad."
Khashoggi, a good critic of Prince Mohammed who wrote for The Washington Post and was a US resident, was lured to the Saudi consulate found in Istanbul in October 2018, then killed and chop into pieces.
Washington is widely likely to impose new sanctions on Saudis viewed as linked to the prince - although in a roundabout way against Prince Mohammed himself. He has broadly acknowledged Saudi Arabia's responsibility but denies any personal involvement.
US President Joe Biden ordered a good declassified version of the report - primary completed under his predecessor Donald Trump - to get released within a reset where Washington is distancing itself from Prince Mohammed.
This occurs the heels of a first telephone call between Biden and King Salman late Thursday, when the White House made clear that Biden had no intention of talking with the 35-year-old crown prince.
The White House said that Biden and the 85-year-old king emphasized the countries' security ties and "the US commitment to greatly help Saudi Arabia defend its territory since it faces attacks from Iranian-aligned groups."
However, in a change from the Trump era, Biden as well "affirmed the importance america places about universal human rights and the rule of law."
FATAL CONSULATE APPOINTMENT
A good veteran Saudi journalist and editor, Khashoggi was in self-exile and residing in the United Claims, writing articles critical of the crown prince when he was assassinated on Oct 2, 2018.
The writer had been told by Saudi Arabia's ambassador to america to visit the Saudi consulate in Istanbul if he wished to obtain records for his forthcoming marriage to a Turkish woman, Hatice Cengiz.
Now there, the 59-year-old was killed and his physique dismembered simply by a team sent from Riyadh under the direction of a top aide to Prince Mohammed, Saud al-Qahtani.
Just one month after the murder, the US Central Intelligence Agency concluded with high self-assurance that Prince Mohammed had ordered the assassination, in line with the Washington Post.
But, determined to keep good relations with Riyadh, Trump refused to publicly contain the Saudi strongman responsible, even as the US federal government demanded the perpetrators be punished.
The published intelligence survey asserts that the 15 people delivered to target Khashoggi in Turkey included members of Prince Mohammed's "elite personal protective detail," the Rapid Intervention Force.
According to The Washington Post, US intelligence also learned a phone call from Prince Mohammed to his brother Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to america, where Prince Mohammed gave guidelines intended for luring Khashoggi to Istanbul.
Another little bit of evidence was a recording of the murder obtained by Turkish intelligence from inside Istanbul consulate. This helped discover the participants and confirmed communications between them and Riyadh.
QUESTION OF JUSTICE
Few observers of Saudi Arabia believe the murder could have taken place without the knowledge of Prince Mohammed, a calculating strongman who has jailed several critics and locked up competing factions on the royal family.
Under heavy pressure from america and the international community, the Saudi federal government put a number of the perpetrators on trial.
The closed-door trial exonerated both officials widely seen as the masterminds: Qahtani, the royal court's media adviser, and deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri. Both happen to be portion of Prince Mohammed's inner circle.
Five unnamed defendants were sentenced to death and three others presented stiff prison conditions. Nine months later, the death sentences were withdrawn by the court and substituted with sentences as high as 20 years.
Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders both branded the circumstance a good "parody of justice."
Nonetheless it assuaged the Trump administration, whose main action was to put 17 suspects in the event, including Qahtani but not Assiri, on its sanctions blacklist.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
TAG(s):