Hatice Cengiz wants punishment for the crown prince ‘without delay’ for his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
The fiancée of the killed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is demanding that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman be punished after a U.S. intelligence report found that the de facto ruler of the kingdom was involved in the murder of the man in 2018.
Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post newspaper who complained about Saudi policies under bin Salman, was killed and dismembered by a large squad at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
“It is imperative that the crown prince… be punished without delay,” Hatice Cengiz said on Twitter.
“If the crown prince is not punished, it will forever signal that the main critic can get away with a murder that will endanger us all and be a stain on our humanity.”
A U.S. intelligence report on Friday found that the prince, widely known as MBS, had approved the work that led to Khashoggi’s assassination. The administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump had withheld the long-awaited report.
The report also cited “MBS support for violent measures to defuse disputes, including Khashoggi” among the factors on which the assessment was based.
“Since 2017, The Crown Prince has had complete control over the United Kingdom’s security and intelligence agencies, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out such activity without the consent of the Crown Prince, “The report said.
The four-page report names 21 people who were or were involved in Khashoggi’s murder.
Washington has imposed sanctions on some of those involved, but not Prince Mohammed himself.
The Saudi government, which has denied any involvement with the crown prince, has rejected the report’s findings.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday banned visas from some Saudi officials believed to have been involved in Khashoggi’s assassination and imposed sanctions on others who froze their U.S. assets and prevented Americans from dealing with them.
When asked about Washington’s criticism for not controlling MBS directly, Biden said he would have been notified Monday but did not provide details, while a House official suggested White unexpected new measures.
Last month, the U.S. ended its support for Saudi’s devastating war in Yemen as part of Biden’s new administration’s efforts to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its human rights violations.
In his first call since he became president, Biden spoke to Saudi King Salman last week when he stressed “the importance of the United States’ places on universal human rights and the rule of the United States. law ”.
“Starting with the Biden administration, it is crucial for world leaders to ask themselves whether they are willing to shake hands with someone who has been convicted of murder,” said Cengiz, a campaigner. to get justice for killing a fiancé.
The Saudi government, which initially said it had no information about Khashoggi, claimed responsibility for the assassination but said it was a fraudulent activity that did not involve the prince.
Cengiz said “following this report, there is no longer any political legitimacy for the crown prince”.
“The fact – which was already known – has been revealed once again, and is now confirmed.”
But she said the U.S. report did not go far enough.
“But this is not enough,” she warned, “for the truth can only be meaningful when it serves justice to achieve it.”