Attempts from Bin Salman to bring Al-Qahtani back to the frontline

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was desperate in his attempts to return the former adviser to the royal court, Saud Al-Qahtani, to the forefront, after the Public Prosecution acquitted him of the charges against him in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Al-Qahtani, who is known to have “managed the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi”, was one of the prominent names in his country because of his strong ties with the Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, but he was exempted from his duties as a consultant, after the assassination of Khashoggi on October 2, 2018, At the Kingdom Consulate in Istanbul.

Al-Qahtani began to get out of sight after he was excused from his duties, but the Public Prosecution affiliate with the Saudi regime issued a decision to acquit him of the assassination in late 2019, which made him try to return to the front lines.

In this context, the director of the General Authority for Entertainment and close friend of the Crown Prince Turki Al Sheikh published a video on his Twitter account, including a poem written by Al-Qahtani to celebrate his acquittal of the assassination, describing it in the most beautiful poem.

The poem contains many expressions of praise for the Saudi judiciary, accusations of a number of Qatari media for launching anti-Saudi campaigns, as well as criticism of the history of the Turkish Republic.

The international media interpreted the officials close to Bin Salman to republish the Qahtani poem, as an attempt to re-assign him to tasks again.

The Public Prosecution affiliated with the Saudi regime had announced the death sentences of five people in the case of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and also sentenced three others to prison terms totaling up to 24 years.

Al-Qahtani was acquitted, despite the fact that the prosecution itself had convicted him approximately one and a half months after the crime.

On November 15, 2018, Assistant Public Prosecutor Shalan bin Shalan stated that Al-Qahtani had a “coordinating” role in the Khashoggi killing.

In response to a question: “It was reported in the media about the role of the adviser at the Royal Court, Saud Al-Qahtani in this case, what is his role in this case? Was it referred for investigation?” Al-Shaalan said at the time, “From the investigations conducted to date, it became clear that the role of the former adviser was to coordinate by the Deputy Chief of General Intelligence in requesting accession, the leader of the negotiating group, and he was working with him.”

He added, “the former counselor also requested to meet with the team and the negotiation group in order to inform them of some information that may be useful to them in this task by virtue of his media specialization and in the belief that the victim, may God have mercy on him, was grabbed by some organizations hostile to the Kingdom and that his return to the Kingdom is a great success for this task, knowing that the previous counselor has He was banned from traveling while he was under investigation.”

In today’s conference, the public prosecutor announced the acquittal of Saud Al-Qahtani and the consul in Istanbul (Muhammad Al-Otaibi) and Major General Ahmed Asiri (former deputy director of intelligence). No charges were brought against them and they were released.

Saud al-Qahtani, who is considered the right arm of Muhammad bin Salman, was dismissed from the position of adviser to the royal court, and was considered the largest figure involved in the Khashoggi murder.

Al-Qahtani began work at the Royal Court during the reign of the late King Abdullah, and he was promoted to become a secret silencer in the inner circle of Muhammad bin Salman.

Sources with ties to the royal court said that he was speaking a lot on behalf of the crown prince and was issuing direct orders to senior officials, including officials of the security services.

According to sources close to Khashoggi and the government, Al-Qahtani tried to win the journalist’s return to the kingdom after he moved to Washington a year ago for fear of reprisals for his views.

Al-Qahtani used Twitter to attack criticism of the kingdom in general and Prince Muhammad in particular. He ran a WhatsApp app with editors-in-chief for local newspapers, dictating the royal court’s approach.