Bin Salman met Biden during his visit to the Kingdom about two months ago
An American court rejected a lawsuit to try the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the case of the assassination of the 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 the allegations of bin Salman’s involvement in the case as “credible,” but added that he did not have sufficient authority to overturn the US administration’s decision to provide him with immunity, according to the Guardian newspaper.
Khashoggi’s fiancée, Khadija Genghis, in cooperation with the “Dawn” group supporting democracy, 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 was accused of doing so, but Riyadh described the team as rogue, and acted without referring to officials.
However, the CIA said it believed Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in ordering his killing.
The US administration had issued its decision regarding bin Salman’s immunity about 3 weeks ago.
image copyright AFP
Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, wrote on Twitter that “Jamal died again today” with the verdict
The US State Department also said, in court files, that bin Salman enjoys sovereign immunity because of 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 in the Kingdom.
Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, wrote on Twitter that “Jamal died again today” with the verdict.
Bates said that the civil lawsuit 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 American administration, which was included in the case papers, and which arrived on the seventeenth 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 that the “reliable allegations” regarding the murder, the timing of bin Salman’s announcement as prime minister of the kingdom, in addition to the timing of the US administration sending its official statement with immunity, all made him “uncomfortable” in his decision-making. But he has nothing else to do about immunity.
With the court’s decision, activists expressed their shock. “Today is a black day for the victims of international repression,” said Khalid al-Jabri, a Saudi doctor and dissident residing in the United States, and the son of a former Saudi intelligence official.
He added that US President Joe Biden, “put opponents in greater danger after making it clear to the dictators that his human rights policy is nothing but hot air.”
And Biden, before becoming president of the United States, 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 of accusation 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.
After the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war and the global energy crisis, Biden visited the Queen and met Bin Salman, but he was criticized for the visit, which the activists considered support for the Saudi government.