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Dawn wants to know the names of the 10 security people who were sent to Norway.
Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi founded the Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) organization before he was brutally assassinated by Saudi officials at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
Following Dagbladet’s revelations that Saudi Arabia requested diplomatic status for ten security guards at the embassy in Oslo in early summer 2018, Dawn asks Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide for access to the names of the ten.
Norway should release the names of these agents so that the public can find out if they have been involved in other attacks on Saudi dissidents, including the killing of Khashoggi, who relied heavily on Saudis who pretended to be security guards when they arrived. to Turkey to kill him at the consulate, says Dawn CEO Sarah Leah Whitson in a comment to Dagbladet.
Broad international support
Dawn wants to cross-check the names of the security guards in Oslo with the information they themselves have on other cases from other parts of the world.
In Bergen, among other things, a Saudi Arab artist was threatened by embassy staff in Oslo, Dagbladet revealed.
– Saudi Arabia scares an artist in Bergen.
Foreign Minister Søreide declined to comment on any of the cases Dagbladet has written about Saudi Arabia, but received a letter from Dawn on December 23 requesting that the names of the security guards in Oslo be released.
The Foreign Office and Søreide have also not wanted to comment on this letter to Dagbladet.
Government critic
Following the story of the Saudi artist who was approached and threatened at his hotel during the Bergen International Literature Festival, the opposition at the Storting demands that Søreide call the Saudi ambassador on the carpet.
– Over time, we have seen the Saudis abuse diplomatic immunity to restrict freedom of expression, and we ask for a government response to this. The government cannot credibly claim that it takes this seriously, while also hiding behind police investigations, Rødt’s Bjørnar Moxnes told Dagbladet.
Through the communications department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of State Audun Halvorsen responded to the following by email this weekend:
“There is a clear framework on how diplomats can act in Norway. The Foreign Ministry regularly informs embassies of serious violations of Norwegian law, when confirmed by the Norwegian police. Under Norwegian law, for example, it is not allowed to threaten or harass one’s citizens in Norway The precondition for bringing individual cases on this basis to an embassy is normally that there is a police report based on a report.
A dangerous espionage and influence
We are concerned about the situation of freedom of expression and human rights in Saudi Arabia, and have raised this both in direct meetings with Saudi Arabia and in other international contexts. »
Neither Halvorsen nor Søreide have answered follow-up questions about whether they will call the ambassador on the carpet, or what specifically they have raised with Saudi Arabia.
Will verify the Khashoggi case
Whitson of the Dawn organization believes that knowing the names of the security people who applied for diplomatic status in Norway is important to the entire international community.
– We believe that matching the names of these ten Saudi Arabian agents with the alleged offenders of the Khashoggi murder will help us in our quest to hold those who killed Khashoggi accountable, by better understanding the roles of the specific defendants and verifying if any of them were requesting diplomatic immunity in Norway, Whitson told Dagbladet.
He sent ten mysterious men to Norway
Dawn has joined 9 other organizations in requesting access to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Several of the organizations are also behind the lawsuit against the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, for the murder of Khashoggi, and they believe that understanding the names may also be important in that lawsuit.
Five Saudi officials were sentenced to death for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, but the sentences were subsequently overturned and the sentences reduced.
Bin Salman denies ordering the killing of Khashoggi, but has apologized for what he describes as a mistake.
– Remember that the information we ask for is not confidential or private, Dawn writes in the letter the Chancellor received today.
– Have a good case
Sindre Granly Meldalen, a knowledge expert and advisor to the Norwegian Press Association, believes that Dawn and the other organizations have a good case when it comes to gaining access to the information they seek.
Covert support of authoritarian states
– The name itself is not considered a “personal relationship” with which there is a duty of confidentiality, so the information must be disclosed, Meldalen tells Dagbladet.
He adds:
– It is possible to keep information secret when there are particularly important foreign policy interests or when national security and defense considerations demand it, but the threshold for doing so must be very high. They are people who have applied for diplomatic status. If they had, the names would have been made public anyway and then there should be no legitimate interests dictating secrecy.
