UN Says Saudi Officials Planned and Carried Out Khashoggi Murder
A United Nations-led inquiry into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said on Thursday that evidence pointed to a brutal crime “planned and perpetrated” by Saudi officials. “Evidence collected during my mission to Turkey shows prime 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, UN special rapporteur for extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions, said in a statement issued in Geneva. She said her Jan 28-Feb 3 mission to Turkey with a team of three experts “could not firmly establish whether the original intention was to abduct Mr. Khashoggi, with his murder planned only in the eventuality of this abduction failing.” She also said Saudi officials had “seriously undermined” and delayed Turkey’s efforts to investigate the crime scene at its Istanbul consulate.
Callamard’s team was also unable to meet with some Turkish investigators who had been working on the case. She called on Turkey to “promptly fulfill their pledge to provide access to forensic, scientific and police reports.” She asked for meetings with U.S. officials, including at the CIA, the State Department, and Congress. “I intend to continue to consider evidence in the weeks to come and would urge anyone who has knowledge or intelligence about what took place before and after Mr. Khashoggi’s murder to share it with us,” she said.
Meanwhile, a confidential report prepared for the Saudi public prosecutor by Kroll, a private security firm, is contesting an assessment by the CIA that concluded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman likely ordered the killing of Khashoggi. A draft of the report, reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, found that none of the WhatsApp messages exchanged between Prince Mohammed and top aide Saud al-Qahtani on October 2, the day Khashoggi was killed, concerned the journalist or his murder. The existence of those messages between the Saudi prince and Qahtani—who reportedly oversaw the team that killed Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul—was one piece of evidence cited in the CIA assessment. Two U.S. officials said this week that the CIA stands by its “medium-to-high confidence” assessment that Prince Mohammed personally targeted Khashoggi, authorized the operation against him, and probably ordered his death. Reuters, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal
Related:
The Hill: Senators Reintroduce Bill to Punish Saudis for Khashoggi Killing
New York Times: Year Before Killing, Saudi Prince Told Aide He Would Use ‘a Bullet’ on Khashoggi
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Editor-in-Chief, Karen J. Greenberg, Center on National Security, Fordham Law School
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