report : Saudi Crown prince knows that a ' criminal mission ' is targeting Khashoggi

Agnes Callamard, a United Nations human rights expert, has released a report on her months-long investigation into Khashoggi's death.

An American special investigator on Wednesday called for the opening of investigations into senior Saudi officials, including Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, on The Assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Agnes Callamard, a human rights expert and Special Rapporteur to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, published a 101-page report on her investigation, which lasted several months, into the death of Khashoggi at the Consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul.

The report provides new grim details about Khashoggi's death that Callamard gleaned from listening to audio recordings provided by the Turkish authorities. The audio captured Saudi agents discussing the dismemberment of Khashoggi's body prior to his arrival at the consulate, as well as his assassination, the report said.

Callamard said that the responsibility for Khashoggi's murder extends beyond the eleven Saudis who are being tried in a closed-door judicial process in Saudi Arabia. It characterized this act as extrajudicial killing, which could lead to torture, as the responsibility of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She added that the Saudi authorities had been involved in the destruction of the evidence.

Although Callamard said she had found no "gun" incriminating the crown prince himself, she had claimed that he had played a key role in a crackdown on dissidents and that she almost certainly knew that a criminal mission targeting Khashoggi was planned.

"The evidence shows that the 15-person mission executing Mr. Khashoggi required extensive government coordination, resources and finances," she wrote. "While the Saudi government claims that these resources were put in place by Ahmed Asiri, all the experts consulted believe that it is inconceivable that an operation of this magnitude could be implemented without the crown prince being at least aware of the nature of his mission. criminal nature, directed against Mr. Khashoggi, was launched".

Asiri, a former deputy head of Saudi intelligence, is one of two senior Saudi officials implicated in the assassination by Saudi prosecutors and the only high-ranking official on trial.

Callamard's account of Khashoggi's death is the most definitive to date, although his investigation was hampered by Saudi Arabia's refusal to allow him to travel to the kingdom to conduct interviews. The United States has so far avoided apportioning blame by saying that it is learning more and more.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Donald Trump deplored the killing of Khashoggi, a columnist at The Washington Post the year before his death. But they said relations with Saudi Arabia, a key ally in the government's campaign against Iran, were too important to be diverted by a single incident.

Pompeo recently announced that the United States, citing emergency powers because of rising tensions with Iran, would sell $ 8 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Callamard said he found insufficient evidence to conclude that Turkey or the United States knew or should have known and warned Khashoggi of a threat to his life. Nor did it find evidence that the American intelligence services had intercepted the communications of the crown prince suggesting that he wished Khashoggi dead.

Callamard was harsh in his assessment of Saudi Arabia and in his response to Khashoggi's death. She added that the kingdom had taken only" timid steps " to prosecute 11 suspects. It noted that the trial was closed and that even the names of the accused had not been made public. Concerned about a miscarriage of justice, she called for a stay of the trial.

Callamard stated that she had been allowed to listen to audio recordings of events inside the consulate a few days before Khashoggi's visit and the day of his assassination. They represented 45 minutes of conversation, a fraction of the seven hours of sound captured by the Turkish intelligence services.

Part of the audio was hard to understand. "For example, on the basis of recordings, the Special Rapporteur was unable to reach definitive conclusions about what [she and her investigators were told] was the sound of a' vu ' in operation. The Turkish authorities undoubtedly have more information and intelligence on the events. in the Saudi consulate they were willing or able to share with the investigation, " says the report.

According to the report, 13 minutes before Khashoggi entered the consulate on 2 October, two of the Saudi agents, Maher Mutreb and Salah Tubaigy, an expert in Forensic Medicine, discussed the dismemberment of the body.

"The joints will be separated," Tubaigy told Mutreb. "The first time I cut on the ground. If we take plastic bags and cut them into pieces, it'll be over."The name of Khashoggi was not mentioned, but rather it was designated by Mutreb as"the sacrificial animal".

The report also indicated that Tubaigy "had expressed concerns" about what was going to happen, saying to Mutreb, "my supervisor is not aware of what I'm doing. There's no one to protect me."

The audio recording suggests that they tried to make Khashoggi believe that he would be kidnapped, not killed and repatriated to Saudi Arabia.

After arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate, Khashoggi was invited to the consul general's office and asked if he would return to Saudi Arabia.

"He said he wanted to come back in the future," the report said.

But Saudi agents, using the pretext of an Interpol warrant, claimed they were there to bring him back to the kingdom.

More conversation ensued, according to the report. Khashoggi insisted that people were waiting for him outside, as one of the agents tried to persuade him to send a message to his son. "What should I say?"Khashoggi asked. "Soon? I can't say kidnapping."

"Hit him, Mr. Jamal," replied one of the officers. "Hurry up. Help us so that we can help you because in the end we will bring you back to Saudi Arabia and if you do not help us, you know what will happen in the end."

Then, in the recordings, "struggle noises can be heard," says the report.

In his report, Callamard painted a moving picture of Khashoggi, as if he was trying to make him alive through his struggles and successes.

An important but traditional journalist in Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi changed his mind following the Arab Spring. Increasingly isolated by his opinions, he went into exile but had to leave his wife behind. Living in the Washington area, he had little income, little security and little status, which made him lonely and unhappy, Callamard wrote. His decision to remarry suggests that he was preparing to live a more serene and organized life, she said.

Callamard's long-awaited report greatly amplifies its preliminary findings published in February. She then stated that Khashoggi was "the victim of a brutal and premeditated murder, planned and perpetrated by Saudi state officials". She added that Saudi Arabia had "seriously limited and undermined" Turkey's attempts to investigate.

Khashoggi was killed on October 2 by a team of Saudi agents who were waiting for him at the Consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul when he went to collect documents for his imminent remarriage.

The Saudis initially insisted that he had left the building, but it was later revealed that a double body had been sent from the back door while his fiancée was waiting near the front door. It was one of many turning points in Saudi Arabia's history, including a statement that he died in a fight. But evidence showed that he was killed inside the building, dismembered and that his remains were transported to an unknown location.

The CIA determined that it was likely that Khashoggi was ordered to be assassinated by the Crown prince, The Daily Leader that Khashoggi had sometimes criticized in his columns in the Washington Post.

The chairman of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, Bandar bin Mohammed al-Aiban, called the journalist's death an"unfortunate accident". He added that the kingdom would not accept an independent international investigation, as it would cast doubt on "the integrity of our judicial system".

The death of Khashoggi has aroused the international community's indignation and brought attention to the Crown prince, thus tarnishing his reputation as a reformer. In March, 36 countries publicly censored Saudi Arabia and demanded an impartial and transparent investigation into Khashoggi's death.