Agnes Callamard on Jamal Khashoggi, UN and Saudi Arabia

– The case is very interesting.

This is what French human rights expert Agnes Callamard tells Dagbladet. He was responsible for the UN investigation into the murder of the Saudi Arabian regime, critical journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and reacts with great interest when he is presented with Dagbladet’s revelation of a hitherto unknown Saudi activity against Norway.

Saudi security team to Norway

Dagbladet has revealed that the Foreign Ministry intervened when Saudi Arabia wanted diplomatic status granted to a ten-man security force, working for the oil-rich kingdom’s embassy in Oslo. The security team arrived in Norway in July 2018. Both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the PST were involved in the case, which ended with Norway refusing to issue diplomatic visas to nine of the ten security officers.

The PST has linked the incident to Iyad el-Baghdadi, a well-known Saudi critic and friend of the murdered Jamal Khashoggi who lives at a secret address in Norway. Baghdadi and Khashoggi met in Oslo in May 2018.

PST declined to comment on the case, but found no errors in the Dagbladet information.

Faced with the case of the Norwegian visa, Agnes Callamard says:

– I didn’t know, but I’ve noticed now. It indicates that Saudi Arabia changed tack when they had to pressure or contact activists later; They did not need diplomatic immunity when they came to Turkey to kill Khashoggi, but they used planes with diplomatic papers. They may have changed tactics when they realized that people can enter even without diplomatic immunity. But I cannot say for sure if the diplomatic immunity was an ordinary procedure or if it was a deliberate move for another reason.

He sent ten mysterious men to Norway

The Saudi Arabian embassy in Oslo has declined to comment on Callamard’s appointments, beyond a 2019 press release where they go against fabricated and false allegations, which they claim will offend Saudi Arabia.

– The embassies in the center

Dagbladet has also documented how Alya al-Huweiti, a profiled ex-horseman from Saudi Arabia who worked at the country’s embassy in London, has come under great pressure from Saudi authorities and elites and serious threats from cybercriminals. The reason was, he says, that he did not want to use his celebrity status to direct public relations for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Instead, he chose to oppose and criticize the regime.

The Saudi Arabian embassy in London has declined to comment on the case, despite repeated inquiries from Dagbladet.

That case is also from the summer of 2018. Agnes Callamard points out that the moment, July 2018, looks interesting. This was the same period when the Mohammed bin Salman regime is said to have started patting critical voices around the world on the back.

Threatened by cyberbullying

– There is no doubt that there is a sample of Saudi dissidents living in different countries who were located, whether they were killed, kidnapped, monitored, intimidated or threatened, Callamard tells Dagbladet.

She adds:

– What we know, based on both Jamal’s case and other cases, is that Saudi embassies or consulates are often at the center of these cases.

The Saudi Arabian embassy in Oslo declined to comment on Callamard’s criticism.

Callamard’s UN report on Khashoggi’s assassination states that security guards at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul had several important roles during the assassination. Bin Salman’s campaign against critics is said to have started with actions against female activists in Saudi Arabia and is also featured in the biography “MBS”, written by New York Times journalist Ben Hubbard. The actions have been harshly criticized by human rights organizations.

Ask Joe Biden for help

– Fact and false

Agnes Callamard concluded in her UN investigation that the Saudi authorities were behind the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Callamard is considered one of the world’s leading human rights experts and is also the director of the Global Freedom of Expression project at Columbia University.

In the investigation of the Khashoggi case, he was assisted by lawyer Helena Kennedy, rector of one of the Oxford University faculties, and the prominent Portuguese forensic scientist, Professor Duarte Nuno Vieira.

Saudi Arabia confirmed, after various explanations, that Khashoggi was killed by Saudi officials. Five men were sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia on Christmas Eve 2019 for their role in the murder, after which the death sentences were abolished in September this year and the sentences were significantly reduced. American intelligence concluded that he was assassinated on the orders of Crown Prince bin Salman. The Crown Prince has apologized for the murder, but denies ordering it, calling it a regrettable mistake.

Dagbladet has asked questions to the Saudi Arabian embassy in Oslo about Agnes Callamard’s connection between the Baghdadi case and the other activist attacks in 2018.

The embassy was also asked why they wanted diplomatic immunity granted to the security guards, about the various points that Norway responded to with the visa case, about their relationship with activist Iyad el-Baghdadi and why they were driving the security force so hard.

No one from the embassy has wanted to meet Dagbladet. Nor will they comment directly on the Callamard quotes. Instead, the embassy has responded to the emails, with a press release they originally sent out in 2019:

The embassy is aware of what has been published in some media about the case of Iyad el-Baghdadi and the accusations against Saudi Arabia. The embassy wishes to point out that this person is not a Saudi citizen and is unknown to Saudi Arabia. What he said is fabricated and false and is intended to offend Saudi Arabia. We have been in contact with the Norwegian government of Saudi Arabia to receive more information on this matter. Saudi Arabia reserves the right to take necessary legal action against the foregoing to protect the rights of Saudi Arabia. “

Two weeks after the embassy sent the 2019 press release to Dagbladet, they explain to security guards in a new email. There, the embassy writes that it is the need for 24-hour security at the embassy itself and at the ambassador’s residence that is the reason for the large increase in security personnel in Oslo. This is due to a more threatening situation against Saudi Arabia.

The embassy has yet to answer questions about the Callamard appointments, or why they wanted diplomatic status for these security people.

The role of Am Salman

– What happened to the activists, Callamard?

– They have been singled out by the Saudi court and the environment surrounding Mohammed bin Salman. Inside, they are threatened or imprisoned for silence, and outside surveillance and various types of pressure are used.

Agnes Callamard confirms that she knows Iyad el-Baghdadi from before. She claims that he was an important source to her, both in her investigation of the Khashoggi murder and in the case in which Mohammed bin Salman himself is said to have hacked the phone of Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the country. world. Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has dismissed the accusations as “nonsense and lies.”

– How involved is Mohammed bin Salman himself?

– It is very difficult – or impossible – to imagine that these operations are carried out without him knowing or ordering them. Because of the way the regime is structured and the way it governs, it is difficult, or really impossible, not to place it at the center of this criminal activity. At the same time, these teams have done everything possible to protect him and it is difficult to find concrete evidence linking him to the crimes. But the CIA has indicated that they have evidence that it ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. There is no reason to believe that private individuals will lead such operations. It is totally irrelevant that the regime can refuse because of its knowledge or control of operations. The link with bin Salman is more complicated. But none of those I have interviewed, who know how Saudi Arabia works, has indicated anything other than that MBS must have been involved in the operations.