MOHAMED BEN SALMAN INVESTIGATED IN THE KILLING OF JOURNALIST JAMAL KHASHOGGI

BY UN INVESTIGATION

Exiled to the United States, where he wrote regularly for the Washington Post, the journalist was last seen on October 2, 2018 while entering the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey.

After initially denying the murder, Riyadh has put forward several contradictory versions and now claims that Jamal Khashoggi was killed in an operation not authorized by the authorities.

But a UN report invalidates this latest version of the monarchy.

In a six-month report, UN Special Rapporteur Agnès Callamard said that "Mr. Khashoggi was the victim of a deliberate, premeditated execution of an extrajudicial execution of which State of Saudi Arabia is responsible under international human rights law ".

Call to "open a criminal investigation"

"There is credible evidence, warranting further investigation, of the individual responsibility of senior Saudi officials, including the Crown Prince," she adds.

Sufficient evidence exists to open an investigation into the responsibility of senior Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in the Khashoggi case, according to UN human rights expert

The rapporteur cautioned against "the disproportionate importance attached to the identification of the perpetrator", stressing that justice should not only establish the responsibility of the physical perpetrator. Eleven suspects have been arrested in Saudi Arabia to answer for the murder of the journalist. But a judicial inquiry "also aims, if not primarily, at identifying 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," argues the rapporteur. Special Report of the United Nations in its report.

The UN expert therefore calls on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to "open a follow-up criminal investigation into the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in order to establish solid files on each of the alleged perpetrators".

The head of the UN "should itself be able to open a follow-up international criminal investigation without a state having to intervene," she notes.