02/26/2021 16:06
Clarín.com
World
Updated 02/26/2021 16:06
The United States on Friday declassified a report in which it assures that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved the operation in Istanbul for "the
capture or murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
."
The report states that Bin Salman is in control of the Security and Intelligence organizations so "it is highly unlikely that the Saudi agents carried out an operation of this nature
without the authorization of the prince
."
The report finds that seven royal guards of the prince, who "only answer to him", participated in the murder of the columnist for
The Washington Post
.
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, was the one who ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, according to a US intelligence report. Photo: EFE
"The prince viewed Khashoggi as a threat to the kingdom and widely supported
violent measures to silence him
if necessary," the text says.
The revelation could increase pressure on the Biden government to
hold the kingdom accountable for a murder
that sparked international outrage.
The central conclusion of the report was widely expected given that intelligence officials are said to have reached it shortly after the
brutal October 2, 2018 assassination
of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's authoritarian consolidation of power.
Still, since the find had not been officially disclosed until now, the public assignment of responsibilities came as an
extraordinary rebuke to the ambitious 35-year-old crown prince.
This is
likely to set the tone for the new administration's relationship with a country that President Joe Biden has criticized, but that the White House also sees in some contexts as a
strategic partner
.
A protest that called for the clarification of the crime in 2018. Photo: AFP
The report was released a day after a courtesy call from Biden to King Salman, later than usual.
A White House summary of the conversation made
no mention of the assassination,
saying instead that the men had discussed the long association of the countries.
The kingdom's Saudi Press Agency also did not mention Khashoggi's assassination in its report on the call, instead focusing on regional issues such as Iran and the ongoing war in Yemen.
The crime
Jamal Khashoggi went to manage some documents at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, but never came out alive: he was
assassinated and dismembered by fifteen Saudi agents
after his criticism of the government of Saudi Arabia.
Surveillance cameras also tracked his footsteps and that of his suspected killers in Istanbul in the hours leading up to his murder.
A video capture that shows the moment when Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Photo: EFE
Apparently, a Turkish microphone placed in the consulate picked up the sound of a saw, operated by a Saudi colonel who was also a forensic expert, dismembering Khashoggi's body
an hour after he entered the building
.
The whereabouts of his remains remain unknown.
The prince said in 2019 that he assumed
"full responsibility"
for the killing, as it occurred under his watch, but denied ordering it.
Saudi officials have said that Khashoggi's killing was the work of
rogue security and intelligence officials
.
Saudi courts announced last year that they had sentenced eight Saudi nationals to prison for Khashoggi's murder.
They were not identified
.
Source: agencies
