UN criticism for failure in Khashoggi file

The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions has accused Agnes Kalamard, the UN secretary-general and the international community, of not benefiting from her report on the killing of Khashoggi, adding that her report to the UN Human Rights Council on June 26, Mission to conduct an international investigation.

Kalamard said she was “disappointed” that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the international community had not benefited from her report on the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi for an international investigation.

The UN investigator said that there is a lot of evidence revealing the role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, stressing the existence of the failure of the United Nations in the performance of its duty towards this crime.

“There is a lack of decision-making by the United Nations on the killing of Khashoggi.”

More than once, after completing the investigation into the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, the UN Special Rapporteur had previously confirmed that it was a “state-level murder” and that Mohammed bin Salman was one of the accused behind her.

A year after the murder, bin Salman admitted responsibility for the killing of Khashoggi as “an official and leader in the Kingdom, especially as it happened by Saudi officials.”

“I understand that the Secretary-General is working in a difficult environment, and I understand that the legal framework is complex and does not give the green light to act as he wants, but I think he is obliged to show a certain position in this regard, because I conducted an investigation and gave him the basis for requesting a criminal investigation. He failed me because he did not take the opportunity to take another step towards accountability.”
She made clear in statements that she did not believe that the Secretary-General of the United Nations need a resolution from the UN Security Council or some legal authority to start an international investigation into the killing of Khashoggi.

Kalamard stressed that “the Secretary-General of the United Nations does not demand the establishment of an international tribunal to require a resolution of the Security Council, only required an investigation to uncover the circumstances of the killing of Khashoggi and this does not require a resolution of the Security Council.”

“In fact, until last June, the UN Secretary-General did not feel the need for a specific Security Council resolution to conduct an international investigation to uncover the circumstances of Khashoggi’s murder. Such an investigation could have been carried out once a country like Turkey or another country,” Kalamard said. Guterres recently changed his tone and is demanding a Security Council resolution allowing an international investigation into Khashoggi’s death.

Kalamard also criticized Western countries for not asking the UN Secretary-General for an international investigation into the killing of Khashoggi or requesting the establishment of an expert committee. She said countries claiming “protection of human rights” such as Canada, Germany, Sweden, France and Britain could have applied, but they didn’t.

Kalamard also revealed that she had formally asked Riyadh to visit the Kingdom to meet the Saudi prosecutor in charge of investigating Khashoggi’s murder, but her repeated requests were not answered.

“The Kingdom says the case is an internal affair and refuses to conduct an international investigation, but in fact it is not an internal affair. In particular, the crime occurred outside the Kingdom, and involved more than five or six violations of international law, and the victim was a Saudi citizen living in exile.

In June, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights published a 101-page report by Kalamard, blaming Riyadh for the killing of Khashoggi, confirming the existence of credible evidence requiring investigation of senior officials, including the crown prince.
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside his country’s consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul on October 2, 2018, and the fate of his body remains unknown.