New York-Sana
The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his country's consulate in Istanbul was planned and involved officials of the Saudi regime, the United Nations rapporteur on extrajudicial killings and arbitrary executions has confirmed.
"There was a well-organized and well-resourced special operation involving deliberate murder and I don't know if the murder was planned from the beginning or 24 hours ago," Kalamard was quoted as saying by Russia Today. "But I have no doubt that the killing was part of the plan."
“I also know for sure that many officials in Riyadh were involved in organizing this special operation and I also know for sure that what happened after the killings involved the authorities in Riyadh, including the 17 officials who arrived after the crime to conduct the investigation and allegedly cleaned up the crime scene,” the UN investigator said. ”.
She explained that "what happened indicates that this was a killing by the state and not a rogue operation by individuals who decided to kill Khashoggi."
Kalamard noted that there is enough evidence to indicate that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is responsible for the crime, pointing out that he “ordered the execution of the crime, incited, tolerated or did not take any step while he was aware of it” and that the decision on Khashoggi's murder was taken at a high level.
Kalamard also criticized the UN for not taking a tougher stance, arguing that the legal framework gives the world powers to make certain decisions, "but it did not happen," and regretted "the failure of the Secretary-General to take the opportunity to activate efforts to investigate the killing of Khashoggi."
In a previous report, Kalamard concluded that bin Salman was personally responsible for the Khashoggi killing. "Several House and Senate deputies who have received information from the CIA have repeatedly said openly that Salman is responsible," Kalamard said.
It is noteworthy that the Saudi regime resorted during the last period to try to mislead public opinion and distract attention from the involvement of its officials, especially Ibn Salman for the murder of Khashoggi through the announcement of a mock trial of 11 people he described as involved in the crime and in the first session of their trial earlier this year This system has the death penalty for five of them.
