Adam Schiff: decisions on Khashoggi’s case an attempt to banish Bin Salman
The head of the Intelligence Committee in the US House of Representatives, Adam Schiff, said the provisions of the case of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi “an attempt to remove the Saudi leadership, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, from the brutal murder.”
The American network “CNN” quoted a statement from Schiff, in which he said that “the death sentence against five persons convicted of the death of Khashoggi is an attempt by Saudi Arabia to deport the Saudi leadership, headed by the Saudi Crown Prince, Prince Muhammad bin Salman, and his senior advisers from the crime.”
Chef described the crime as “brutality”, noting that “the Saudi novel that states that the operation took place through rogue elements contradicts the evidence and intuitive thinking.”
He said, “He asked the director of the US National Intelligence to provide Congress with a report within 30 days, about current and former officials who had participated or had prior knowledge of the Khashoggi killing.”
He stressed that “the council will insist on following this report and will continue to fight in order to hold the perpetrators of the killing and whoever is responsible for its execution responsible.”
Schiff stressed that “the council will continue to work to ensure that the real reformers in Saudi Arabia are not silenced by the Saudi authorities backed by US President Donald Trump,” according to the statement.
The Public Prosecution of the Saudi regime announced a preliminary ruling for the execution of five (unnamed) persons among 11 convicts, three of them were also punished with varying prison sentences totaling 24 years, and a disciplinary punishment was imposed on three other convicts for not having been found guilty, which means acquitting them.
The prosecution announced that the Riyadh Criminal Court acquitted Saud Al-Qahtani, a former adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for not charging him, Ahmed Asiri, the former deputy chief of Saudi intelligence for failing to prove charges against him, and Muhammad al-Otaibi, the former Saudi consul in Istanbul, who proved his presence elsewhere at the time of the Khashoggi killing.
Khashoggi was killed, on October 2, 2018, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in a case that shocked international public opinion.
After 18 days of denial and conflicting interpretations, Riyadh announced his death inside the consulate, after a “quarrel” with Saudi people, and arrested 18 citizens as part of the investigations, without revealing those responsible for the crime or the location of the body.
The Public Prosecution did not announce the names of those who were sentenced on Monday, but the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions had identified in a report issued in June the identities of 11 people on trial and those who could be sentenced to death, including information from various sources in the government.
