US says bin Salman has immunity in case against him for murder of Jamal Khashogi

The journalist's sentimental partner says that Biden "has saved the murderer" and that "Yamal has died again today"

MADRID, 18 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The United States Administration has determined that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salmán, has immunity in the case opened against him in the United States for the murder in 2018 of the journalist Jamal Jashogi inside the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city from Istanbul.

The US Justice Department has filed a court filing at the State Department's request specifying that bin Salman's recent appointment as Saudi prime minister confers immunity on him.

"The State Department recognizes and allows the immunity of the (Saudi) Prime Minister, Mohamed bin Salmán, as the acting head of the Government of a foreign State," said Richard Visek, signatory of the document presented before the US Justice.

Thus, it has indicated that "Prime Minister Bin Salmán, as the acting head of a Government, is immune while he is in office before the jurisdiction of the United States district court in this lawsuit."

"In making this immunity determination, the State Department fails to analyze the merits of the lawsuit and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashogi," stressed Visek, legal counsel for the Department of Justice.

After that, the journalist's sentimental partner, Hatice Cengiz, has said that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, "has saved the murderer by giving him immunity." "He has saved the criminal and has been involved in the crime. We will see who saves him later," she said. Cengiz has also pointed out that the Biden Administration's decision implies that "Yamal has died again today."

"The US State Department has given immunity to Mohamed bin Salmán. It was not a decision that anyone expected. We thought that perhaps there would be a light to justice in the United States, but again money is ahead," Cengiz criticized in a series of messages published on his account on the social network Twitter.

Along these lines, the non-governmental organization Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), founded by Jashogi before his assassination, has pointed out that "the recognition by the Biden Administration of the status of Bin Salman as head of Government of Saudi Arabia , which would give him immunity from the lawsuit against him for the murder of Jamal Khashogi, is a legal and political mistake."

The pronouncement of the US Administration has come on the deadline for this, after a lawyer for the Saudi crown prince argued in October that his appointment as prime minister gave him "immunity". In this sense, he pointed out that the court should recognize that it lacked "jurisdiction" to address the claim.

The King of Saudi Arabia, Salmán bin Abzulaziz, appointed his son and de facto leader of the country as prime minister on September 27 because he already heads a large part of the country's main portfolios and is at the forefront of decision-making. decisions in Riyadh, without revealing the reasons for the appointment.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States in October 2020 on behalf of Cengiz and DAWN, lists Bin Salman and 20 other Saudis. The lawsuit seeks the payment of civil damages and to clarify through the US justice system the level of involvement of senior Saudi officials in the murder of Jashogi, including the publication of information from officials and intelligence agents.

The judicial process in Saudi Arabia came to an end on September 7, 2020 when, after the appeals process, eight people were sentenced to prison terms for their responsibility in the murder, thus reducing the death sentence handed down in December 2019. against five of them.

Jashogi, a journalist critical of the Saudi royal house and who worked for 'The Washington Post', disappeared on October 2, 2018 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to manage some documents to be able to marry Cengiz. There, he was murdered and dismembered, without his remains having been found.

The then UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, who conducted an investigation into the case, said in June 2019 that evidence suggests bin Salman and other senior officials are responsible for the killing. She later called the final rulings "a travesty of justice."