Bin Salman met Biden during his visit to the kingdom about two months ago
A US court has dismissed a lawsuit to try the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the case of the assassination of former Saudi dissident and journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
The judge, John Bates, said that making the decision “is not easy”, but bin Salman enjoys sovereign immunity, as the leader (prime minister) of an independent country.
Bates described allegations of bin Salman’s involvement in the case as “credible” but added he did not have sufficient authority to overturn the US administration’s decision to grant him immunity, according to the Guardian newspaper.
Khashoggi’s girlfriend, Khadija Genghis, in collaboration with the pro-democracy group ‘Dawn’, had filed a civil lawsuit before the US judiciary.
Khashoggi was killed and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, and an intelligence team affiliated with the queen has been accused of doing so, but Riyadh has described the team as rogue and acted without referral to officials.
However, the CIA said it believed Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in ordering his killing.
The US administration issued its decision on bin Salman’s immunity about 3 weeks ago.
image copyright AFP extension
Khashoggi’s girlfriend Hatice Cengiz tweeted that ‘Jamal died again today’ with the verdict
The US State Department also said in court files that bin Salman enjoys sovereign immunity due to his new role as prime minister.
And the Saudi monarch, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, issued a decree in late September appointing Prince Muhammad as prime minister of the kingdom.
Khashoggi’s girlfriend Hatice Cengiz tweeted that “Jamal died again today” with the verdict.
Bates said the civil suit filed by Khashoggi’s widow and the “Down” group presented “strong and worthy of consideration” arguments that bin Salman was behind the crime.
He added that he could not go beyond the official position of the US administration, which was included in the case files, and which arrived on the 17th of last month, even though bin Salman did not become prime minister in the kingdom until a few weeks ago.
In the 29-page ruling, Bates said the “reliable allegations” surrounding the killing, the timing of bin Salman’s announcement as the kingdom’s prime minister, plus the timing of the US administration sending its official statement with immunity , are all made him “uncomfortable” in his decision-making, but he has nothing else to do on the immunity issue.
With the court decision, the activists expressed their shock: “Today is a black day for the victims of international repression,” said Khalid al-Jabri, a Saudi doctor and dissident living in the United States, the son of a former US military official. Saudi intelligence. .
He added that US President Joe Biden, “has endangered opponents after making clear to dictators that his human rights policy is nothing but hot air.”
And Biden, before becoming US president, had described Saudi Arabia as a “pariah state” for its role in the heinous crime that killed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
And when he assumed the presidency, he allowed the publication of a CIA report pointing the finger at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who denies any role in the crime.
The United States has sanctioned more than 70 Saudi officials in connection with human rights abuses.
Following the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war and the global energy crisis, Biden visited the queen and met with bin Salman but was criticized for the visit, which activists saw as supportive of the Saudi government.
