The Biden government takes a turn and now prevents prosecution because it is the Saudi prime minister, although it acknowledges that he was responsible for the crime
Joe Biden’s promise to hold the Saudi crown prince, Mohamed bin Salmán (MBS), to account for the assassination and dismemberment in October 2018 of the critical journalist Jamal Kashoggi, has remained a dead letter by decision of his own Government. Not surprisingly, the State Department has decided to grant him immunity in the case that has been open for two years before the US Justice against him and another twenty citizens of the kingdom.
“The State Department recognizes and allows the immunity of the (Saudi) Prime Minister, Mohamed bin Salmán, as acting head of the Government of a foreign State,” Richard Visek reported late on Thursday, early Friday morning in Spain, signatory to the document filed in a US district court. This determination, Visek said, will prevent MBS from being charged “while he is in office” but “does not analyze the merits of the lawsuit and reiterates his condemnation of the heinous murder.”
The decision by Biden, who had assured in his campaign for the presidency that he would turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah” for its human rights abuses, in particular for what happened to Khashoggi, has angered the journalist’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz , promoter of the process. Yamal has died again today. Biden has saved the killer by giving him immunity. He has saved the criminal and implicated himself in the crime,” he said on Twitter. “We thought maybe there would be a light for US Justice. But again money came first,” she added.
Under his “supervision”
Khashoggi, known for writing criticism of MBS policies for the ‘Washington Post’, was murdered and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul, where he had gone to request some documents to be able to marry Cengiz. The investigations, including those of the United States and the UN, pointed to the authorship of Bin Salmán and other high officials of the kingdom. MBS denied ordering the execution but did acknowledge that it was done under his “supervision”.
With its decision, Washington has agreed to the request of a lawyer for the crown prince, who in October demanded that he be granted “immunity” since his father, King Salmán bin Abdulaziz, had appointed him prime minister on September 27. . Several experts see in the turn of the US an attempt to avoid a further estrangement with his former partner after he decided last month to cut oil production, a decision that Biden equated to “aligning himself with Russia.”
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