World
US set to public Jamal Khashoggi murder report
The United States is preparing to release a secret investigative report regarding the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi. The report is widely believed to have impose that the murder plot was carried by the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
According to the White House, the President Biden has read the report and will speak to Saudi King Salman soon.
Whereas, President Biden also intends to "restructure" US relations with Saudi Arabia.
Jamal Khashoggi, an American journalist and correspondent of the Washington Post was brutally murdered in 2018 at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has denied any involvement in the killings, which took place inside the Saudi embassy building.
Saudi officials said, a team of Saudi agents were sent to bring Jamal Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and that he had died as the situation worsened during the operation.
A Saudi court sentenced five men to death for the murder but commuted the sentence to 20 years in prison in September last year.
The report is expected to be released sometime on Thursday
The British news agency Reuters quoted four unidentified US officials as claiming that the report said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had approved the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and had issued "possible orders".
The officials added that most of the report on Jamal Khashoggi assassination was based on CIA investigation.
Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia say Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had no knowledge of the killings. But in 2019, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a statement that because the killings were caused by negligence on the part of Saudi officials, he as one of the most important members of the Saudi government, would accept responsibility for the killings.
The US broadcaster NBC News reported that the intelligence analysis was not new and was based on a CIA investigation that was widely published in 2018 and later. The analysis said there was no concrete evidence of Muhammad bin Salman's involvement, but US officials said such an operation could not be carried out without the approval of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
The Washington Post, for which Jamal Khashoggi worked, said the CIA's investigation was based on phone calls made by the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Khalid bin Salman also the brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Prince Khalid, who is also the country's deputy defence minister, allegedly telephoned Jamal Khashoggi on the instructions of his brother Muhammad bin Salman and assured him the compete security in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.
Prince Khalid denied of holding any conversation to Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2019, UN special envoy Agnes Kalamard accused the Saudi state of "deliberately" assassinating Jamal Khashoggi, calling the murder case a "joke with justice".
The publication of the investigative report into the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi is part of US President Joe Biden's policy of restructuring US relations with Saudi Arabia and he is stricter about Saudi Arabia than the policy of former President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration rejected legal requirements to release the murder investigative report on the grounds that it had better relations with Saudi Arabia.
White House spokesman John Paskey said Wednesday that President Biden would speak directly to Saudi King Salman and not to his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is currently the ruler of Saudi Arabia.
A White House spokesman said the talks would be the first time since Saudi Arabia's 85-year-old King Salman took office. "Immediately after we came to power, we made it clear that we would reconsider our relationship with Saudi Arabia," he told reporters.
The new US administration has already made a number of important policy changes. President Biden has ended his support for the Saudi-led war against Yemen and cut off arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Jamal Khashoggi, a 59-year-old journalist, was last seen entering the Saudi embassy in the Turkish capital, Istanbul, on October 2, 2018.
According to Saudi officials, Jamal Khashoggi was given an injection to control his condition, and during a physical altercation, he received an overdose of the injection, which led to his death. After which his body was dismembered and handed over to some local helpers.
No trace of his body has been found since then.
Information released by Turkish intelligence agencies, including some audio material, revealed shocking details.
Khashoggi had previously served as an adviser to the Saudi government, but later fell out of favour with the Saudi ruling family and left the country for the United States in 2017. In the United States, he began writing critical columns for the Washington Post on Muhammad bin Salman's policies.
In his first column, he wrote that he was afraid of being arrested in Saudi Arabia because Muhammad bin Salman was trying to silence all his opponents.
In his last column, he sharply criticised Saudi Arabia's attack on Yemen.