The US State Department on Wednesday expressed its support for a UN report calling for an investigation into senior Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his accession in Istanbul last year.
The State Department said in a statement it supported "the global mission of Calamard to investigate extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions". She noted that the Ministry officials met with Kalamard at their request; to discuss many things, including the death of Jamal Khashoggi. "We are determined to press for the accountability of every responsible person." In the same context, Al-Hurra channel quoted American envoy Brian Hawk as saying that Saudi Arabia should make more efforts to ensure accountability for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "The Saudi attorney general has taken important steps towards accountability, but there is still much to be done," Hawk said while giving testimony to Congress. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Agnes Kalamard, published Wednesday a 101-page report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, Agnis Kalamard, in which Saudi Arabia claimed responsibility for Khashoggi´s murder. It also confirmed credible evidence that senior officials Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On the other hand, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, Adel al-Jubeir, said that his country rejects any attempts to undermine its leadership in the case of the killing of Khashoggi, or handling the case outside the Saudi judiciary. He explained in tweets through his account "Twitter", that "the judicial authorities in the Kingdom is the only one competent to consider this issue and exercise its responsibilities completely independent." Khashoggi was killed on Oct. 2 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in a case that look international public opinion. After 18 days of denial and conflicating interpretations, Riyadh announced its death inside the consulate following a "quarrel" with Saudi nationalities, and 18 citizens were arrested in the investigation, without disclosing those responsible for the crime or the body´s whereabouts. On March 28, the United Nations called on Riyadh to hold a public trial of Khashoggi´s killers. With Riyadh abstaining from providing new information, experts believe Turkey should continue to press internationally and move to the ICC to ignore all the facts about the crime. -
