‘Saudi government sabotages Khashoggi murder inquest’

This 28 January 2019 video says about itself:

What can investigation into Khashoggi’s murder achieve? Inside Story

Jamal Khashoggi was a critic of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The journalist was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul almost four months ago. But his body or remains have never been recovered, and the murder case remains unresolved.

Turkey’s not satisfied by the Saudis own investigations and wants a full international inquiry.

What it’s got is an independent investigation led by the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions. Agnes Callamard and her team are in Turkey for a week-long mission. She also wants to visit Saudi Arabia. But will this independent international inquiry make any difference anyway?

Can Saudi Arabia be held to account?

Presenter: Richelle Carey

Guests: Sultan Barakat, Director For Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute
Carl Buckley, Barrister at Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

Criticism by United Nations on Saudi sabotage of Khashoggi inquiry

The UN accuses Saudi Arabia of having seriously obstructed the investigation into the murder of the Saudi journalist Khashoggi. UN rapporteur Callamard expressed her criticism of the Saudi authorities after a visit to Turkey, the country where the murder last year was committed.

She described the death of the Saudi as a cruel, planned murder, conceived and executed by Saudi officials. Callamard will publish a report about the murder, which caused great indignation internationally, in June.

Jamal Khashoggi wrote columns for The Washington Post, in which he criticized the powerful Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. He disappeared after a visit on 2 October last year to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Soon it became clear that he was killed in that building, after which his body was smuggled away in parts.

Saudi Arabia has only admitted after a long time that the journalist was killed in the consulate. Khashoggi’s body is still missing.

‘Too little time’

According to Callamard, after the disappearance of Khashoggi, Turkish investigators were given “woefully little time and limited access” to the consulate where the crime was committed, not enough to do proper research. The UN rapporteur also wanted to visit the consulate herself, but was not admitted.

In the week that Callamard spent in Turkey she also listened to a “terrifying and horrific” sound recording of the execution of Khashoggi, which is in the hands of the Turkish secret service.

The UN rapporteur also said that she was concerned about the fate of the eleven people who are jailed in Saudi Arabia in connection with this case.

These are the eleven scapegoats to take attention away from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. They are scapegoats now, not because of participation in murder, but because they did a poor job of covering up the murder.

The death penalty has been demanded against them. Callamard has asked Riyadh if she can visit the eleven people, but so far without result.

SAUDI PRINCE THREATENED TO SHOOT KHASHOGGI Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017 told a top aide he would use “a bullet” on Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist killed in October, according to a report by The New York Times. [HuffPost]

SAUDI Arabia’s so-called human rights commission has rejected calls for an international investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, claiming his killers have already been punished: here.

SAUDI ARABIA CONDEMNS 5 IN KHASHOGGI MURDER  Saudi Arabia has sentenced five people to death for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a plot the U.S. has linked to the Saudi crown prince. Ten defendants were released due to insufficient evidence. The trials were secret and the names of the condemned men were not released. [AP]

TRUMP ALLY APOLOGIZES FOR KHASHOGGI COMMENTS Tom Barrack, Trump’s longtime confidant, issued an apology following backlash over comments he made a day earlier that appeared to defend Saudi Arabia’s role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. [HuffPost]

JARED SHRUGS OFF BUDDY’S BODY COUNT White House adviser and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner refused to say outright whether he would hold Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accountable for the gruesome death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. [HuffPost]