The United Nations report, by Agnes Callamard, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions for the United Nations human rights agency, makes the most detailed and authoritative case to date that responsibility for the killing of Mr. Khashoggi and its cover-up lies at the highest levels of the Saudi royal court.
Drawing on extensive access to surveillance by Turkish intelligence agencies and the accounts of Turkish investigators, the report finds that “credible evidence” justifies the “investigation of high-level Saudi officials’ individual liability, including the crown prince’s.”
It urges further criminal investigations both by the United Nations and, because of Mr. Khashoggi’s status as an American resident, the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Western intelligence agencies have already concluded that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing. But the report may present a new challenge to President Trump, who has embraced Prince Mohammed as a pivotal ally and sought to avoid blaming him for directing the murder.
Key takeaways from the United Nations report on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi:
• Saudi officials carried out an extensive cover-up of Mr. Khashoggi’s killing in a Saudi consulate in October, scrubbing down rooms, blocking investigators and possibly burning evidence.
• The destruction of evidence and the active role of the Saudi consul general in organizing the operation in coordination with officials in Riyadh suggest that the killing and cover-up were authorized at the highest levels of the Saudi royal court.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/world/middleeast/jamal-khashoggi-Mohammed-bin-Salman.html
