[ad_1]
Photo posted, fake images
Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday that it filed a criminal complaint with the German judiciary against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, accusing him of committing “crimes against humanity” for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The lawsuit, which seeks to investigate public prosecution under international jurisdiction laws in Germany, accuses Saudi Arabia of persecuting Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, as well as dozens of other journalists.
“We call on the German attorney general to take a position,” Christophe Delaware, the organization’s secretary general, said in a statement.
He added: “No one should be above international law, especially when the crimes of humanity are at stake.”
This comes after Washington issued a declassified intelligence report last week declaring that the Saudi crown prince had approved of Khashoggi’s assassination in 2018.
Khashoggi was a US-based journalist working for the Washington Post.
Saudi officials have insisted on criticizing the report that Khashoggi’s assassination was a “rogue operation” in which the crown prince was not involved.
However, Reporters Without Borders said it had gathered evidence of “state policy to attack and silence journalists” and presented it to the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Monday.
The organization’s report details cases involving 34 jailed journalists in Saudi Arabia, including blogger Raif Badawi, who has been jailed since 2012 on charges of “insulting Islam.”
The German court in Karlsruhe confirmed to AFP that it had received the complaint, but declined to comment further.
A mockery of justice
The lawsuit, along with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, targets his senior aide Saud Al-Qahtani, who is suspected of having a direct role in planning the killing of Khashoggi and three other Saudi officials.
Photo posted, Reuters
Hatice Cengiz described the canceled death sentences against five suspects last September as “a mockery of justice.”
Reporters Without Borders said that while a Saudi court convicted 11 unidentified defendants in December 2019 under international pressure, the main suspects in the case continued to enjoy “complete immunity from justice.”
The death sentences against five suspects were canceled last September, in a move Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz described as “a mockery of justice.”
And he led a campaign aimed at pressuring the international community to punish Saudi Arabia for killing a citizen outside its territory.
Turkish officials previously said that Khashoggi, 59, was strangled and his body cut to pieces by a Saudi squad of 15 men inside the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, and his remains were not found.
The CIA and the United Nations special envoy have linked the murder to Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a charge Saudi Arabia denies.
A US report released last week concluded that seven of the 15 people who were members of the assassination team, who went to Istanbul to carry out the killing of Khashoggi, belong to the Rapid Intervention Unit. Only “.
The administration of United States President Joe Biden imposed sanctions on the Rapid Intervention Force, meaning that any American dealings with it constitutes a crime, and the sanctions also included preventing 76 Saudis from entering the United States under a new policy directed at foreign officials who are tightening the screws of dissent.
However, the sanctions did not amount to personally targeting the 35-year-old crown prince, who is the country’s de facto leader and defense minister of one of the world’s largest oil-producing countries.
