The Saudi government on Thursday exonerated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as death penalty charges were announced against five men and the US placed sanctions on 17 suspected of involvement.
Riyadh prosecutors announced indictments against 11 people and said that a total of 21 people were in custody in connection with the killing, which outraged Saudi allies and placed massive pressure on Prince Mohammad to come clean about the murder.
The Saudi prosecutor said that execution would be recommended for five principals who “are charged with ordering and committing the crime.”
However, prosecution spokesman Shaalan al-Shaalan rejected allegations that Prince Mohammad, whose father is King Salman, directed the murder.
The prince had “no knowledge” of Khashoggi’s killing, Shaalan said.
Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told journalists in Riyadh that the prince was not involved.
“Absolutely. The crown prince has nothing to do with this issue,” Jubeir said.
Khashoggi, who lived in the US and wrote for the Washington Post and other international media, was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
The murder was carried out by a team of Saudis who travelled to Istanbul for that purpose, according to Turkish and US assessments, and was allegedly directed and led by close aides of the prince.
The Saudi prosecutor, in the country’s newest account of what happened, said that agents were dispatched to Istanbul to bring Khashoggi home “by means of persuasion,” but ended up killing him with “a large amount of a drug resulting in an overdose.”
The Saudi prosecutor did not name any of those indicted in the murder, but the US sanctions announced on Thursday included two top aides of Prince Mohammad, Saud al-Qahtani and Maher Mutreb, and Mohammad Alotaibi, who was the consul general at the Istanbul consulate when Khashoggi was murdered.
The US Department of the Treasury said that al-Qahtani, Prince Mohammad’s long-time right-hand man, “was part of the planning and execution of the operation” to kill Khashoggi.
The US statement made no mention of Prince Mohammad.
Khashoggi’s killing has plunged the world’s top oil exporter into its worst diplomatic crisis since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US, in which most of the hijackers were identified as Saudi nationals.
The criticism has shaken the 33-year-old Prince Mohammad, who has moved with brash confidence since becoming heir to the throne in June last year, in a shakeup undertaken by King Salman to secure power for his wing of the sprawling Saudi royal family.
The country’s allies and critics alike are pushing for an independent investigation into Khashoggi’s murder, with Turkey at their helm pointing a finger directly at Prince Mohammad, widely known as “MBS.”
However, Jubeir dismissed the calls for an international probe.
“This is now a legal case and is thus in the hands of Saudi Arabia’s judiciary,” he said.
On Thursday, the Saudi prosecutor’s office said that the kingdom had requested that Turkey sign a “special cooperation mechanism” on a probe.
However, Turkey said that the Saudi response fell short and i the murder was “premeditated.”
“We find all those steps positive, but insufficient,” Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
In Washington, US Department of State spokeswoman Heather Nauert called the Saudi announcement a “good first step.”
However, senior US politicians and the Washington Post said that the moves were far from adequate.
“In announcing actions against ‘those responsible’ for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, the Saudi and US governments are asking the world to take their word for it that this settles the matter,” Washington Post publisher and chief executive Fred Ryan said.
“From the start, the Saudi ‘investigation’ has been an effort to shield those ultimately responsible for this heinous crime when there is every reason to believe that it was authorized at the highest levels of the Saudi government,” he said.
“The US government should be demanding an independent investigation that gets to the truth about the murder of an innocent journalist,” Ryan added.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of