Saudi Arabia has hindered the Turkish investigation into the case of Istanbul-murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a UN human rights expert believes. The Saudi authorities did not allow a thorough investigation into the crime scene, Agnes Callamard said yesterday reporting to the UN Human Rights Council on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions.
The journalist living in exile in the US was strangled and dismembered in October 2018 at the consulate in Istanbul by a 15-member command specially arrived from Saudi Arabia; his body was never found. He wanted to pick up papers there for his planned wedding. The murder demanded „the urgent attention of the international community, including the UN,“ Callamard said.
„Brutal and deliberate killing“
The evidence gathered showed that government critic Khashoggi was „the victim of a brutal and deliberate killing,“ planned and executed by representatives of Saudi Arabia, Callamard said in Geneva. She was in Turkey from January 28 to February 3 to investigate the Khashoggi case. It intends to present a detailed report to the Human Rights Council in June.
The Saudi Arabian leadership has been under pressure internationally since Khashoggi’s death. According to the leadership in Riyadh, the now-defunct vice-secret service chief Ahmed al-Assiri and the royal media consultant Saud al-Kahtani ordered the operation. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had not been informed, it said. But there remains the suspicion that he is the actual person responsible.
