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Tag: Khashoggi

  • Khashoggi murder: Family denies considering settlement

    The children of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, on Wednesday denied discussing any sort of settlement over his killing by Saudi agents.

    This followed a report that the family was considering accepting financial and material compensation for his death.

    “Currently the trial is taking place and no settlement has been discussed or is being discussed,” said the statement, published on Twitter by Khashoggi’s eldest son, Salah.

    The Washington Post, where Khashoggi was a columnist, reported last week that the children were given million-dollar houses and monthly five-figure payments as compensation.

    But it added however, that it was a separate deal from any potential “blood money” payment that could be negotiated after the murder trial under the Saudi justice system.

    Read Also: Jamal Khashoggi: Murder so horrible

    While ruling out a “settlement,” the statement did not, however, explicitly deny receiving the compensation.

    “Acts of wisdom and generosity arise from high morals and humanity and are not an admission of guilt or error. We were raised to be grateful for favours and not reject them,’’ the family said in the statement.

    The Kashoggi family, however, could not be immediately reached for further comments on the matter.

    Eleven suspects are on trial for last year’s murder of Kashoggi, which the CIA and some Western governments believe was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

    The authorities have continued to deny Salman’s role or knowledge of the killing, which sparked an international outcry and limited sanctions by Western allies.

  • Khashoggi, the West and silence

    IR: Jamal Khashoggi has been trending for the wrong reasons. In no small measure it has come to a glaring fact that supposedly civil places are complicit in the most heinous of crimes. The man died, and in a manner best described as most inhumane. However both conspiracy theorists and Saudi authorities have advanced circumstances leading to his death.

    Recall that this isn’t the first time the world is witness with this sort. Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket was in 1170 gruesomely clubbed to death right in the confines of Canterbury. King Henry II and Archbishop Becket were in divergent views over the jurisdiction of secular courts on English clergymen and the full execution of archbishopric rights and privileges, including the sanctioning of some condescending bishops by Becket for crowning Henry II King instead of Canterbury, and Becket’s refusal to append to the Clarendon constitution. Even threats to excommunicate the king from the church were debated. Henry’s retaliatory moves resulted to Becket’s self-exile to France just like Khashoggi to Turkey. Reports also reveal that Khashoggi’s murder sanctioning might have come from the Saudi crown Prince.

    “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest? “ was the quoted murder sanctioned by King Henry II upon his return from France according to renowned historian, Simon Schama.

    Politics in the Western bloc is seriously taking stance over this development, with condemnable commentaries from world leaders.

    However, U.S a major trade partner with the oil-rich state and with a total arms trade earnings in the tune of over $43.b last year poses a lacklustre approach, rather commends the truthfulness and

    cooperation of the Saudi consulate in the matter. How do you reconcile self-professing as an international vanguard of human rights and playing the ostrich in a case so high profile? Instead of marshalling an executive order, coaxing remorse amongst the West, the ICC and other corporate institutions against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the president of the United States prefers

    conferring with congress, an approach which would defuse society’s sentiments on the atrocious act and wane public opinion and followership. Although some U.S lawmakers have advanced the expulsion of the kingdom’s ambassador as a front line measure. Even the UK made a bewildering statement of not cutting ties with the kingdom as most of its jobs are dependent on their bilateral arrangements, desperately balancing her convenience.

    But irrespective of how diplomatic events churn out amongst the Western bloc actors,

    world leaders and the Saudi kingdom, worthy of note is that history also records silences.

     

    • Odike, Ezemonye Kingsley, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • Khashoggi: ‘Saudi team must have acted on orders’

    A 15-man Saudi team that flew to Turkey before the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the slain Saudi journalist, must have been acting on orders, not necessarily from King Salman, Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said.

    Cavusoglu, however, said that it was Saudi Arabia’s responsibility to tell Turkey what happened to Khashoggi’s body.

    Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of the Saudi Government and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, disappeared at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

    Saudi officials initially insisted that Khashoggi had left the consulate, then said he died in an unplanned “rogue operation”.

    The kingdom’s public prosecutor, Saud al-Mojeb, later said that the journalist was killed in a premeditated attack.

    Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, had repeatedly demanded for more information from Saudi Arabia.

    He asked Saudi officials to explain who in Riyadh sent the 15-man team suspected of involvement in the killing.

    Erdogan said “the 15-man team did not come to Turkey on their own, they came on orders.

    “Without due orders and permissions, 15 people cannot come from Saudi Arabia to kill their own citizen.”

    Cavusoglu said Erdogan had spoken to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman twice after the killing, and that he was sure the king would not give orders to kill someone.

    Turkish and Saudi officials had carried out joint inspection of the consulate and consul’s residence.

    Erdogan said some Saudi officials were still trying to cover up the crime.

    Ankara had demanded Riyadh to cooperate in finding Khashoggi’s body, which Istanbul’s chief prosecutor said had been dismembered.

    “I think it is Saudi Arabia’s responsibility to find out what happened to Khashoggi’s body and inform us about it, as the 15-man team is still in Saudi Arabia,” Cavusoglu said.

    Saudi Arabia has so far detained 18 people and dismissed five senior government officials as part of an investigation into Khashoggi’s death.

  • Turkey opens Khashoggi dossier to CIA

    Turkish intelligence has shared “all the evidence” over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi with the CIA chief during a visit, pro-government media reported on Wednesday.

    CIA Director Gina Haspel visited the Turkish capital Ankara on Tuesday for talks with officials about the killing of Washington Post contributor Khashoggi inside Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate.

    Video images and audio tapes as well as evidence gathered from the consulate and the consul’s residence were shared with Haspel during the briefing at the Turkish Intelligence Organisation (MIT), Sabah newspaper reported.

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stopped short of pointing the blame at the Saudi leadership for the death of the Saudi insider-turned-critic.

    But he said in a keynote speech on Tuesday that the murder was meticulously planned, demanding that all those involved brought to justice.

    Read Also: Taliban bomb maker, wife, kids killed in blast – Afghan police

    The whereabouts of Khashoggi’s corpse still remains unknown.

    The 59-year-old vanished on October 2 after entering the Saudi mission to obtain documents for his wedding.

    Erdogan said that a 15-person team came from Riyadh to kill Khashoggi, including by carrying out reconnaissance outside Istanbul and deactivating security cameras at the consulate.

    Turkish police searched the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate, and the consul general’s residence as well as hunting for evidence in an Istanbul forest.

    On Tuesday, the police searched an abandoned car belonging to the Saudi consulate in an underground car park in the Sultangazi district of Istanbul.

    The Saudi leadership has denied involvement in the murder and instead blamed the chain of command.

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “strongly said that he had nothing to do with this, this was at a lower level,” US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, adding he had spoken on Monday to the prince and his father King Salman.

    Turkish pro-government media has claimed that Ankara has audio tapes of the killing.

    Last week, the Turkish government denied giving “any kind of audio tape” from the investigation to any US official.

  • Khashoggi: Saudi king meets family as Turkey demand answers

    Saudi Arabia’s king and crown prince have received members of the family of murdered dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, as Turkey added to global pressure on the kingdom to answer questions lingering over the circumstances of his death.

    King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman offered their condolences to Khashoggi’s brother and son during a meeting at the royal palace in Riyadh, official Saudi news agency SPA reported.

    Erdogan also offered his condolences to Khashoggi’s family in a phone call on Tuesday, according to state news agency Anadolu.
    In the same call, he pledged to “shed light on the murder,” Anadolu said, continuing to pressure the Saudi elite.

    “Pinning such a case on some security and intelligence officials will not satisfy us or the international community,” Turkish President, Recep Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara earlier Tuesday.

    He pledged to bring to account everyone “from the person, who gave the order to the person, who carried it out.”

    Erdogan said officials from Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul and a team of 15 people from Saudi Arabia planned the “political murder’’ of

    Khashoggi, a vocal critic of the kingdom’s crown prince, days before his death.

    “A plan, a road map was put into action,” Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in parliament.

    He further cited “strong evidence’’ that employees of the consulate scouted a nearby forest prior to the incident while “15 Saudi security, intelligence and forensic officials’’ were flown in a day before Khashoggi’s death on separate flights.

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    Erdogan’s remarks, three weeks after Khashoggi disappeared inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, follow earlier statements by Riyadh that the journalist was killed by a rogue team, including local cooperatives.

    “Why did these 15 people team up in Istanbul? On whose orders? Who is this local cooperative?” Erdogan asked, without citing any named Saudi officials or members of the royal family.

    “No one should ever think that this case can be covered up before all these questions are answered,” Erdogan said, adding that the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s body are still unknown.

    Local media reported that Turkish authorities conducted searches of a villa near Istanbul and a car believed to belong to the Saudi consulate in connection with Khashoggi’s case on Tuesday.

    Khashoggi’s death on Oct. 2 was described as “murder” for the first time by Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel al-Jubeir on Sunday.

    Riyadh had initially denied that Saudi officials had any knowledge of what had happened to the 59-year-old dissident journalist, saying he had left the consulate after picking up papers for his forthcoming marriage.

    The kingdom admitted on Saturday – 18 days after the incident – that Khashoggi indeed died in the consulate but blamed the death on a

    “fistfight” and said more than a dozen people were being questioned.

    While al-Jubeir told Fox News on Sunday that the kingdom was “determined to punish those, who are responsible for this murder,” Erdogan offered to have the suspects tried in Turkey instead of Saudi Arabia.

    “I call on the top [Saudi] management, King Salman in particular,” Erdogan said Tuesday.

    “I propose putting these 18 people on trial in Istanbul. It is up to them to decide [on a trial], but such is my proposal and my demand.”

    Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusolgu, said earlier in the day that Ankara is also ready to cooperate in a possible international investigation into Khashoggi’s death.

    The effects were being felt in Saudi Arabia as well, with Khaled al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, saying the kingdom’s leadership is “very upset” about the case.

    “These are difficult days for us in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we are going through a crisis, resulting from the very regrettable and abhorrent incident that took place in Turkey,” he told an investor conference in Riyadh.

    Western powers in recent days have increased their pressure on the kingdom, with U.S. President Donald Trump holding calls with French President Emmanuel Macron and Erdogan on the subject.

  • Saudi Arabia finally admits Khashoggi died in Istanbul consulate

    The United Nations and the United States have expressed shock at Saudi Arabia’s confirmation that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its Consulate in Istanbul after a fight.

    In a statement released by his Spokesperson in New York, the UN Secretary-General, Anthonio Guterres said that he was “deeply troubled” by the Saudi Arabia’s confirmation.

    After weeks of denials, Saudi Arabia has for the first time confirmed that Khashoggi was killed in a “fistfight” inside its consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

    A tweet posted by the Saudi Foreign Ministry on Friday stated that the missing Saudi journalist, a columnist with the Washington Post newspaper, was killed, claims reportedly echoed on Saudi State Television and news agency.

    The tweet said that “discussions that took place with the citizen Jamal Khashoggi during his presence in the Consulate of the Kingdom in Istanbul…did not go as required and escalated negatively which led to a fight…which aggregated the situation and led to his death.”

    The Secretary-General said he was “deeply troubled by the confirmation of the death of Jamal Khashoggi and extends his condolences to Mr Khashoggi’s family and friends”.

    Guterres stressed the need for a prompt, thorough and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Khashoggi’s death and full accountability for those responsible.

    Saudi public prosecutor also announced on state television that a primary investigation into high-profile journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance had confirmed he was dead.

    The public prosecutor said: “The discussions between Jamal Khashoggi and those he met at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul … devolved into a fistfight, leading to his death.

    “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expresses deep regret at the painful developments that have taken place in this case and affirms the commitment of the authorities in the Kingdom to bring the facts to the attention of the public and to hold accountable all those involved”.

    Guterres’s comments were the latest in a chorus of concern and condemnation over Khashoggi’s disappearance from UN officials and independent UN human rights experts.

    Over the last few days, statements regarding the Khashoggi disappearance had been released by the offices of UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, the Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, Bernard Duhaime, and the Chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, Dante Pesce.

    Earlier, White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Washington acknowledged Saudi Arabia’s announcement and was “closely” following the developments.

    “We will continue to closely follow the international investigations into this tragic incident and advocate for justice that is timely, transparent, and in accordance with all due process.

    “We are saddened to hear confirmation of Mr Khashoggi’s death, and we offer our deepest condolences to his family, fiancee, and friends,” Sanders said.

    U.S. President Donald Trump at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona that Saudi Arabia’s explanation for how Khashoggi was killed was credible, adding that what happened at the consulate is “unacceptable”.

    Trump said Khashoggi’s death was a “horrible event” that has not gone “unnoticed” but noted that the announcement on the circumstances of the journalist’s death was a “good first step”.

    “Saudi Arabia has been a great ally, but what happened is unacceptable,” Trump said, adding he prefers that any sanctions against Riyadh does not include cancelling big defence orders.

    The Saudi government said it arrested 18 Saudis as a result of the initial investigation and fired five top officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s adviser Saud al-Qahtani and deputy intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri.

    Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, went missing on Oct. 2 after entering the consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents needed for his upcoming marriage.

    Saudi officials had previously denied Khashoggi had been killed and dismembered inside the diplomatic facility, insisting the journalist left the consulate before disappearing. (NAN)