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The report, released by the administration of President Joe Biden, said Prince had approved a plan to arrest or assassinate Khashugazi, who had sought refuge in the United States.
This is the first time the United States has revealed the Saudi crown prince’s involvement in the worldwide murder two years ago.
In 2016, Jamal Khashugazi was assassinated while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He was known to be a critic of the Saudi ruling group.
“It appears to us that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia authorized an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to assassinate or detain journalist Jamal Khashugazi,” the report says.
According to a BBC report, in 2016, the CIA suspected that the Saudi Crown Prince was the mastermind behind the assassination. However, the United States has never disclosed the matter before.
President Joe Biden is expected to take a stronger stance on human rights and the rule of law in Saudi Arabia, a key US ally in the Middle East, than his predecessor, Donald Trump.
In a telephone conversation with the crown prince’s father, King Salman, last Thursday, Joe Biden expressed the United States’ position on “the importance of universal human rights and the rule of law,” the White House said.
Reuters quoted a source as saying that the Bowden administration was considering canceling an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. In this case, the issue of human rights is being taken into consideration.
Saudi authorities have been talking about the ‘excesses’ of agents sent to Istanbul to bring Khashugazi back to the country for the assassination. A Saudi court has sentenced five people to death in connection with the killings, reducing the sentence to 20 years in prison last year.
In 2019, UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Calamard also accused Saudi Arabia of plotting to assassinate Khashugazi. He also denounced the Saudi Arabia ruling as “anti-justice.”
The way Khashugaji was killed
Khashugazi, 59, went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2016 to bring the necessary documents to marry his Turkish fiancee. He is said to have received assurances from the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Prince Khalid bin Salman (the crown prince’s brother), that nothing would happen if he went there. However, Prince Khalid has denied any contact with him.
According to Saudi prosecutors, Khashugazi was arrested in a fight and received a drug overdose. This resulted in his death. His body was later cut into pieces and handed over to a local ‘associate’ outside the consulate.
However, Khashugaji’s remains were not found.
The murder mystery comes to light in the audio recording of the conversation between the Khashugazi killers who fell into the hands of Turkish intelligence.
Jamal Khashugazi was a consultant to the Saudi government. He was also close to the royal family. At one point he lost the favor of the royal family. In 2016, he moved to the United States in voluntary exile.
From there, the journalist wrote a monthly column for the Washington Post criticizing Prince Mohammed’s policies.
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