The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard who had earlier this year wrote a report on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi last October in Istanbul, said she deeply regrets that the UN “did not take this opportunity to push further our understanding of chain of command.”
The Special Rapporteur was speaking to reporters on Friday (25 October) in New York, after presenting her report to the UN General Assembly, with the focus on the death penalty.
Responding to a question from a reporter in relation to the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October , Callamard said “I have no doubt that the murder was part of the plan.”
“I also know for a fact that there were many officials in Riyadh that were involved into the organization of this special operation,” said Callamard. “I also know for a fact that what happened after the killing involved authorities in Riyadh including the fact that there were some 17 Saudi officials that came after the killing to investigate supposedly and to clean up the crime scene.”
In her 100-page report, Callamard reviewed and analyzed evidence of the crime collected in Turkey and elsewhere on the basis of international human rights law.
Asked if she can say if the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman, is in any way responsible for the murder, Callard said “for a killing of that nature to have taken place in a country such as Saudi Arabia which is extremely centralized in its decision making, a number of high-level officials had to be involved. I do not know whether the Crown Prince ordered the crime. What I do know is that there is enough evidence pointing to his responsibility at some level.”
According to Callamard, her mandate to investigate Khashoggi’s killing was within the framework of human rights and it did not allow her to conduct an in-depth investigation into individual culpability, which she said the United Nations should have insisted on
“I deeply regret that the Secretary-General or other institutions within the UN did not take this opportunity to push further our understanding of chain of command and our commitment to tackle the chain of command. I think it is a real pity,” Callamard said.
Special Rapporteurs are part of the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and work on a voluntary basis. They are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity~UNIFEED
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