A US judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed in the US against Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, accused of ordering the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Justice John Bates found the charges “credible” but said he was bound by the position recently taken by the US government that “MBS” enjoys legal immunity as sitting head of government.
Jamal Khashoggi, a former Saudi power adviser turned critic, was assassinated and dismembered in 2018 at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The assassination sparked international protests and made Prince Mohammed bin Salman a pariah in the West.
Saudi authorities have always denied responsibility, but he is believed to have ordered the assassination by US intelligence.
A complaint in 2020
The journalist’s Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, and the Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) association he had founded in the United States, had filed a civil complaint in 2020 in US courts against the crown prince and other Saudi officials.
It is this appeal that Judge Bates dismissed while expressing his “discomfort with the circumstances of Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s appointment and the credible allegations of his involvement in Khashoggi’s death.”
At the end of September, “MBS”, who ruled the kingdom de facto for years, was appointed prime minister by royal decree. Many commentators saw it as an attempt to shield him from prosecution abroad.
legal immunity
Taking note of this appointment, the government of Democratic President Joe Biden had estimated in mid-November that he enjoyed judicial immunity.
This statement had generated strong criticism. The Washington Post newspaper, for which Jamal Khashoggi had contributed, had accused the president of having “turned his back on the fundamental principles of press freedom and equality.”
The White House had replied that this legal opinion “had nothing to do with the bilateral relationship” between the two countries.
President Biden visited Saudi Arabia in July. On this occasion, he made a very notorious “check” with the crown prince, but later assured that he had spoken with him about the Khashoggi affair.
Source: BFM TV
