UN Expert Calls for Probe of Saudi Crown Prince’s Role in Khashoggi Killing
UN Expert Calls for Probe of Saudi Crown Prince’s Role in Khashoggi Killing
(Bloomberg) -- A United Nations expert assigned to investigate the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi government agents has recommended probing the possible role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a conclusion that could complicate the kingdom’s efforts to smooth over ties with Western allies.
Agnes Callamard, an expert on extrajudicial executions at the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said she found no “smoking gun” and that “no conclusion is made as to guilt.” But in a report running about 100 pages, she revealed disturbing new details from audio recordings of the murder and maintained there was “credible evidence, warranting further investigation of high-level Saudi officials’ individual liability, including the crown prince’s.”
She asserted Prince Mohammed played a key role in a campaign of repressing dissidents and political opponents, and said that “every expert consulted finds it inconceivable that an operation of this scale could be implemented without the Crown Prince being aware, at a minimum, that some sort of mission of a criminal nature, directed at Mr. Khashoggi, was being launched."
The Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir, said on Twitter that the report contained "clear contradictions and baseless allegations that undermine its credibility." The kingdom is conducting further investigations and its own trial, and “its sovereignty and the authority of its judicial institutions in this case is a non-negotiable issue,” he said.
The kingdom has repeatedly denied the crown prince played any role in the killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul or knew it was about to take place.
U.S. ties
Khashoggi, 59, was a Saudi journalist and former government insider who left to the U.S. in 2017 to live in self-imposed exile. The same year, he began writing a column in the Washington Post that was often highly critical of the kingdom’s new government and its young crown prince.
His murder and dismemberment in October sparked outrage around the globe. The killing also shocked investors in the kingdom, where the government has promoted a narrative of revolutionary social and economic change under Prince Mohammed while downplaying a simultaneous political crackdown.
While the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that the crown prince ordered the execution, according to the Washington Post, U.S. President Donald Trump has remained supportive of him, shielding the kingdom against penalties demanded in Congress.
“It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump said in a statement last year.
Callamard’s report will give new fuel to critics of the kingdom abroad. It also revives debate about Khashoggi’s killing after it had faded, potentially harming Saudi Arabia’s efforts to repair diplomatic relationships damaged by the affair, including with the U.S., where a new Saudi ambassador is expected to arrive within months.
On Wednesday, soon after the report was released, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina slammed Saudi Arabia and Prince Mohammed during a confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominee to serve as U.S. ambassador to the UN.
"He knew it was going to happen. He wanted it to happen. He caused it to happen," Graham said of the prince. "This is just a tip of the iceberg of what is going on in this kingdom."
At the hearing, Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, called the UN report “damning but unfortunately not surprising." He asked the nominee, Kelly Craft, if she believed "there should be accountability for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi."
"We should definitely always request accountability," Craft said. "I have full faith in the special rapporteur. We will follow wherever this investigation leads us to."
’Sacrificial animal’
To conduct her probe, Callamard traveled to Turkey but received no response to a request to visit Saudi Arabia. Her investigation was also hindered in Turkey, where she was given access to only a fraction of the recordings of events at the consulate, including the murder.
Citing the recordings, Callamard found that Saudi forensic expert Salah Tubaigy -- part of the 15-member team sent to Turkey for the operation -- discussed a plan for dissecting a body before Khashoggi entered the building.
"Joints will be separated. It is not a problem," he said. "If we take plastic bags and cut it into pieces, it will be finished."
Tubaigy also expressed concerns, according to the report, saying: "My direct manager is not aware of what I am doing. There is nobody to protect me." Another person was recorded asking whether the "sacrificial animal" had arrived. Those details don’t square with the Saudi government narrative that Mr. Khashoggi was killed after efforts to persuade him to return home failed.
At one point, when Khashoggi resisted orders from the agents, someone warned, "If you don’t help us you know what will happen at the end," according to the report. When Khashoggi asked if he would be drugged, he was told he would be anesthetized. Saudi officials have previously said that Khashoggi was killed by an overdose of an anesthetic.
The special rapporteur also found evidence that after the murder, the crime scene was "thoroughly, even forensically, cleaned," she said.
In Saudi Arabia, a trial of 11 men accused of involvement is ongoing but closed to the media. While diplomats from a handful of countries were invited to attend trial sessions, observation was "conditional upon agreement to not disclose its details," Callamard said in the report. She reconstructed some parts of the trial from government sources, she said.
During a hearing in January, lawyers for the men claimed they "could not object to the orders of their superiors," according to the report. One of the men on trial, former deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri, admitted that he had ordered the team to persuade Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia, but said he never ordered the use of force, according to the report.
Callamard recommended further investigation into Prince Mohammed and his former top aide, Saud al-Qahtani, who’s been removed from his position but isn’t on trial. Callamard said that the UN secretary-general "should be able to establish an international follow-up criminal investigation without any trigger by a State."
--With assistance from David Wainer, Donna Abu-Nasr and Glen Carey.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vivian Nereim in Riyadh at vnereim@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, Larry Liebert
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.