UN expert finds ‘credible evidence’ of Saudi prince role in Khashoggi case

A UN expert has concluded that there is “credible evidence” that demands further investigation regarding the responsibility of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other senior officials for the grisly killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said Khashoggi, a veteran journalist, was the “victim of a deliberate, premeditated execution, an extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible under international human rights law”.

“Indeed, this human rights inquiry has shown that there is sufficient credible evidence regarding the responsibility of the crown prince demanding further investigation,” Ms Callamard said in a report, which was based on a six-month investigation. The 101-page report concludes with a dozen of recommendations, including a call on UN secretary-general António Guterres to initiate a “follow-up criminal investigation”.

The killing of Khashoggi, whose body Turkish and Saudi officials said was dismembered after he was killed, triggered Saudi Arabia’s biggest diplomatic crisis since the September 2001 attacks on the US. Riyadh has been desperate to put the killing behind it and refocus attention on Prince Mohammed’s ambitious reform programme to overhaul the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy.

Prince Mohammed has repeatedly denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October. Riyadh has blamed his killing on a rogue operation and has put 11 Saudi suspects on trial.

Ms Callamard was granted access to some recordings of conversations inside the consulate, according to the report, but she was not allowed to obtain a copy of the recordings or a transcript. “The Turkish authorities undoubtedly have more information and intelligence about events in the Saudi Consulate than they were willing or able to share with the inquiry,” the report said.

In her report, Ms Callamard noted the “extreme sensitivity” of considering the criminal responsibility of the crown prince and his top aide Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to the Saudi royal court who has not been charged.

“No conclusion is made as to guilt,” she wrote. “The only conclusion made is that there is credible evidence meriting further investigation, by a proper authority, as to whether the threshold of criminal responsibility has been met” for the two men.

Mr Qahtani is among more than a dozen Saudi officials who were sanctioned by the US and several European countries in the aftermath of Khashoggi’s killing. Ms Callamard recommended that “such sanctions ought also to include the Crown Prince and his personal assets abroad” until and unless he can prove he has no responsibility. Mr Qathani, who was considered the crown prince’s enforcer, was dismissed in the wake of the journalist’s killing, but Saudi activists fear he is still close to the royal court.

While Saudi Arabia’s European allies expressed concern in the months following the killing, the crown prince has continued to enjoy strong support from US president Donald Trump despite the CIA reportedly concluding that it was authorised by the kingdom’s de facto leader.

Foreign business executives and financiers who snubbed the kingdom’s top investment forum a few weeks after the killing returned to Riyadh in April for a financial conference organised by the government and pledged their commitment to continue working with Saudi Arabia.