Continued European pressure on the Saudi regime to explain the killing of Khashoggi
European pressure continues on the Saudi regime to provide a full explanation of the murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi more than a year ago at the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
The latest pressure came from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokeswoman, who said her country was still demanding Riyadh provide a “complete and credible explanation” of Khashoggi’s assassination.
On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi was killed inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul, and the case has become one of the most prominent and widely circulated on the international agenda since then.
After 18 days of denial, during which Riyadh provided conflicting explanations for the incident, the Kingdom announced the killing of Khashoggi, following a “quarrel” with Saudi people, and the arrest of 18 citizens as part of the investigation, without disclosing the location of the body.
This came a day after the United Nations criticized the positions of US President “Donald Trump” and French “Emmanuel Macron” and German Chancellor “Angela Merkel” on the killing of “Khashoggi.”
The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Agnes Kalamard, on Thursday, in an interview with Business Insider Deutschland, called on the three leaders to make international efforts to clarify the details of the crime.
It called on the international community and national parliaments to initiate international investigations to highlight the crime, stressing that it should be constantly raised in the agendas.
The UN Special Rapporteur considered that silence about the crime is tantamount to participating in it.
“After a UN report on the Khashoggi killing nine days ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was seen smiling among leaders and heads of government at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan.”
Kalamard noted that the picture that bin Salman and the leaders of the countries are holding shows that the situation of the international community is not good at all.
The German government decided to ban arms exports to Riyadh in November 2018, following the killing of Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, and because of Saudi Arabia’s role in the Yemen war.
On September 18, the German government extended the arms embargo to the kingdom until March 2020.
The CIA and Western governments said they believed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Khashoggi.
Bin Salman denied this, but said he bore ultimate responsibility for the killing of Khashoggi, as the ruler of the country.
The Saudi authorities had previously refused a German request to send observers to attend the trial of the defendants in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed by Saudi agents inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul last October.
The German Foreign Ministry said in a brief statement: “We have repeatedly expected the cooperation of the Saudi authorities with the Turkish investigation into the killing of Khashoggi.”
