[ad_1]
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other senior Saudi officials have been accused of committing crimes against humanity in a criminal complaint filed in Germany by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the press freedom group.
The 500-page complaint, filed with the German attorney general at the Karlsruhe federal court of justice, focuses on the “widespread and systematic” persecution of journalists in Saudi Arabia, including the arbitrary detention of 34 journalists there and the murder of Jamal. Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post.
“These journalists are victims of unlawful killings, torture, sexual violence and coercion and enforced disappearances,” Christophe Deloire, Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The complaint came just days after the United States published an unclassified intelligence report on Khashoggi’s assassination in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, which according to US intelligence agencies was approved by the 35-year-old Saudi heir.
RSF has chosen to file its complaint in Germany because German law gives its courts jurisdiction over international crimes committed abroad, even without a connection to Germany. RSF said it hoped that its complaint, which focuses on Prince Mohammed and four senior officials, will lead the German prosecutor to open what is known as a “situation analysis”, which could lead to a formal judicial investigation into whether officials Saudis have committed crimes against humanity targeting journalists.
“The official opening of a criminal investigation in Germany into crimes against humanity in Saudi Arabia would be a world first,” said RSF Germany Director Christian Mihr. “We ask the attorney general to open a situation analysis, with a view to formally initiating a tax investigation and issuing arrest warrants.
The prosecution said it had received the complaint and was evaluating its legal and factual merits.
RSF said the detained journalists are victims of multiple counts of crimes against humanity, including intentional homicide, torture, sexual violence and coercion, enforced disappearance, illegal deprivation of liberty and persecution. By focusing on dozens of cases of detained journalists, RSF said it was revealing that all Saudi journalists, particularly those who speak out against the government, were under threat.
“The truth has been revealed, but that is not enough,” said Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz, who said she would testify as part of any investigation. “The killer cannot be allowed to get away with it, otherwise it will happen again.”
RSF’s attempt to try to get German prosecutors to open a case against the Saudi crown prince followed the recent conviction in Germany of a former Syrian secret police officer of aiding and inciting crimes against humanity for his role in torturing protesters. a decade ago. . Eyad al-Gharib, a 44-year-old former low-ranking Syrian intelligence officer, carried out orders in one of Bashar al-Assad’s prisons.
The “suspects” in the Saudi RSF case are the crown prince, known as “MBS”, his close adviser Saud al-Qahtani, Ahmad Asiri, who has been sanctioned by the United States and allegedly oversaw the killing of Khashoggi, Mohammad al- Otaibi. , the consul general in Istanbul at the time of the murder, and Maher Mutreb, an intelligence officer accused of leading the torture.
The group said in a statement that the named suspects were identified for their “organizational or executive responsibility in the killing of Khashoggi, as well as for their participation in the development of a state policy to attack and silence journalists.”
The Biden administration has come under fire for its decision not to take further action against Prince Mohammed, even as it publicly acknowledged that it was behind Khashoggi’s murder.
The US intelligence agencies based the assessment on the prince’s “control of decision-making in the kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser, and members of [the prince’s] protective detail in operation, and [his] support for the use of violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi ”.
It also found that the prince’s “absolute control” over the kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations made it “highly unlikely” that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation such as Khashoggi’s assassination without his approval.
Khashoggi had gone to the Saudi consulate to collect the necessary documents for his wedding. Once inside, he was killed by more than a dozen Saudi intelligence and security officials and others who had gathered before his arrival. Surveillance cameras had tracked his route and those of his suspected killers in Istanbul in the hours leading up to his murder.
The Saudi government has denied that it planned to assassinate the Washington Post columnist and has said that the assassination was a rogue operation by Saudi agents.
