After lies and procrastination ... the Saudi regime mocks international public opinion and offers a scapegoat in exchange for folding the crime of Khashoggi’s murder

Damascus-Sana

The Saudi regime tried to close the curtain on the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi forever and fold it forever by offering five people as a scapegoat to calm global public opinion and reduce the intensity of international condemnation in exchange for exonerating its officials directly involved in this hideous crime and keeping them away from the guillotine of justice.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman clearly and frankly demonstrated his mockery of international laws and international condemnations after the public prosecutor affiliated with his regime issued a ruling to execute five people and imprison three others, while acquitting three others of his officials involved in the Khashoggi killing that included 31 people in an attempt It is clear to mislead the public opinion and bury this issue with the least possible losses for him, even if that means sacrificing some of his followers in exchange for ridding others close to him.

The case of Khashoggi’s murder by a special assassination team that the Saudi regime sent to its consulate in Istanbul last year witnessed many fluctuations and transformations in its events. What started with bin Salman’s complete denunciation of his responsibility for the Saudi journalist’s disappearance at first was followed by a lack of recognition of the latter’s killing, after which shocking details of the murder were revealed. Each time, with every leak from the reality of what actually happened inside the Saudi consulate, the Saudi regime was producing a novel and a lie through which it is trying to waste time and delay and distance suspicions from Ibn Salman and his main followers in the crime, including his former deputy director of intelligence, Ahmed Asiri and his personal adviser. J Saud Al-Qahtani.

If we go back to the memory of what was revealed to the public about the Khashoggi case, the incident of his disappearance first emerged in October 2018, when the authorities of the Saudi regime initially said that he had left the consulate alive and then returned and admitted his death during a "hand fight" in the consulate and then said in a third narration that Killing "strangling", while those accounts met with great criticism and skepticism from a large number of countries and international organizations that demanded clear and clear answers about this crime and those involved in it, and to reveal the fate of the corpse so that it becomes clear later that the assassination team sent by Ibn Salman cut the body of Khashoggi and hide the pieces in places Different.

Ibn Salman's attempt to mock international public opinion through his mock trial of 11 people he described as involved in Khashoggi’s murder sparked widespread international condemnation as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions described Agnes Calamar’s judgments of the Saudi regime’s judiciary by absolving his officials of the murder as “ridiculous She said in a series of tweets on Twitter: "Impunity after killing a journalist usually reveals political oppression, corruption, abuse of power and propaganda, and even international collusion, all of which are present in Saudi Arabia's killing of Jamal Khashoggi."

Kalamar explained that “the perpetrators of the killing were sentenced to death, but the masterminds were untouched by the investigation or the trial and this is inconsistent with justice ... and an order that calls for ridicule” indicating that “the defendants repeatedly said that they obey orders and the Saudi public prosecutor publicly stated that Al-Qahtani had demanded the kidnapping of Khashoggi and yet not Still free. ”

Death sentences and the acquittal of the rest of those involved in the Khashoggi killing came secretly away from media coverage and the monitoring of the United Nations and human rights organizations that repeatedly demanded the standing of the trials in this case as it came in complete contradiction with the Kalamar report, which reviewed documented evidence condemning the Saudi regime and carrying its top symbols Responsibility for what happened to Khashoggi.

In the context of the wide denunciations of the provisions of the Saudi regime in this regard, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Rap said that "the death of Khashoggi is a brutal crime and his family deserves to see justice take its course", stressing the need to ensure accountability for all officials, while the head of the Intelligence Committee in the US House of Representatives Adam Schiff stressed that the death sentence Only five convicted of Khashoggi’s murder are “an attempt by Saudi Arabia to drive its leadership away from crime.”

Meanwhile, Amnesty International stressed that “Khashoggi’s justice can only be achieved by conducting an independent and impartial international investigation”, while Lynn Maalouf, Director of Middle East Research at the organization, described the verdicts in the case as “used for bleaching and not justice for the late and his relatives”, noting that the trial that It took place in Saudi Arabia unfair.

Human Rights Watch confirmed that the trial conducted by the Saudi regime in secret does not comply with international standards, and that the Saudi regime’s authorities “obstructed meaningful accountability”, while the Washington Post considered that the sentences “amounted to ashes in the eyes of Americans who have been pressing for more than a year Ibn Salman should hold officials accountable and acknowledge al-Qahtani’s role in the crime. ”He pointed out that“ the Saudis were hoping to drop the curtain on the case by sentencing five participants to death, but what really happened was a continuation of the denial that started immediately after Khashoggi’s disappearance. ” .

Perhaps what is worth noting here is the effective role of the American administration in covering up the involvement of Ibn Salman in the Khashoggi murder, given the eagerness of US President Donald Trump to continue blackmailing the Saudi regime and the continuation of his personal commercial ties with this system, which led him to content himself with loose statements about the crime without adopting Any serious position indicates the possibility of punishing those involved or the existence of consequences for the level of bilateral relations between Washington and Riyadh.

The provisions of the Saudi regime in Khashoggi’s case do not raise surprise. He mocks the judicial system as he wants and launches campaigns of repression and arrest against whoever he wants. His black record regarding human rights violations is internationally known, but the crime of Khashoggi’s killing and ridding its officials of punishment and accountability made him like the ostrich that buries its head in the soil. But her body is clear to everyone.

Basem Kanoon