The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, has denied any involvement in the murder.
Washington:
The United States on Friday declassified an explosive intelligence report that found that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, an American writer whose death sparked outrage.
In a partially redacted two-year-old report published by the administration of President Joe Biden, US intelligence concluded that the prince “approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
“Since 2017, the crown prince has had full control of the kingdom’s security and intelligence operations, so it is highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the authorization of the crown prince,” He said.
The report named a 15-member Saudi squad that went to Istanbul and said it was “very confident” that they participated in the assassination, although it said it was unclear whether they knew the operation would result in Khashoggi’s death.
“The crown prince views Khashoggi as a threat to the kingdom and widely supported the use of violent measures if necessary to silence him,” he said.
Khashoggi, who wrote critically about the prince in The Washington Post, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to complete the marriage paperwork.
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