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Journalist Jamal Kashqji (left) and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. AFP = Yonhap News
A report by the US intelligence agency has been released, which concluded that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman, approved the murder of journalist Jamal Kashqji, who criticized the Saudi royal family.
According to the CNN broadcast on the 26th (local time), the four-page declassification report released by the United States National Intelligence Service (DNI) on the same day contained this content.
The report said: “It is assessed that Prince Bin Salman approved the operation to capture or kill Kashukji in Istanbul, Turkey. It is highly unlikely that Saudi Arabia would have carried out such an operation without the permission of the Crown Prince.”
The report also explains that Crown Prince Bin Salman views Kashuk as a “threat to the kingdom” and widely supports the use of violent means if necessary to silence him. He also said that although the Saudis had planned an unspecified operation against Kashqji beforehand, it was not known how much they decided to harm Kashukji.
Kashqzi lives in the United States and wrote a column for the Washington Post (WP) criticizing the Saudi royal family. He was brutally murdered after visiting the Saudi Arabian Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey, in October 2018 to obtain a marriage certificate to a Turkish fiancé.
The Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia sentenced each of the parties, who were put on trial for murdering Kashqji, to between 7 and 20 years in prison. However, the Saudi courts were criticized at the time for judging that it was an accidental murder, not a planned murder.
Crown Prince Bin Salman was named behind the incident, but the Saudi government denied it. However, Western intelligence officials acknowledged that Kashqzi’s assassination had been ordered by Prince Bin Salman, and a US National Intelligence Service report on this prospect was also released. The Saudi government also denied the content of the National Intelligence Service report.
Meanwhile, the US authorities have imposed sanctions on 76 Saudi citizens, including visa restrictions. Local media cited officials and reported that a high-ranking former Saudi intelligence official linked to Kashukji’s murder was included in the sanctions.
Reporter Na Unchae [email protected]
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