02 October 2019•Update: 02 October 2019
ANKARA
UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions criticized Tuesday the Saudi government for "consistently" denying her finding that the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was an "extrajudicial execution".
Agnes Callamard shared Tuesday on Twitter her reactions to the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s statements which "recognize his responsibility for the killing".
Callamard said that through his statements, Mohammed bin Salman implicitly recognized that the killing of Khashoggi was a "state killing".
"It happened under his watch as quasi head of state. The State is therefore implicated as he is," Callamard said.
She stressed that Saudi authorities did not formally acknowledge the killing and has not apologized for it yet.
Callamard criticized the Crown Prince also for tolerating one year of "disinformation" and "policies of intolerance and repression".
Underlining that Salman tries to "distance" himself from the killing, she said: "The identity of the killers and planners point to a far closer relationship between them and him than he is prepared to admit".
"The operation could not have been implemented with such flagrant confidence, resourcing and then - to this day impunity - without State sanction at the highest level," she added.
Executed journalists worldwide
One year after the killing of Khashoggi, Callamard also commemorated executed journalists worldwide.
"On the occasion of the anniversary of #JamalKhashoggi murder, with @ColumbiaGFoE and @Columbia we are remembering and paying respect to journalists executed by States and non-State actors, and denouncing impunity: #NotATarget," she said on Sunday on Twitter.
She referred to the journalists who were executed for their works "denouncing repression," including Pablo Media Velazquez from Praguay, Deyda Hydara from Gambia, Anna Politkovskaya murdered in Russia and Daphne Caruana Galizia from Malta.
Callamard stressed the importance of the obligation of investigating and responding to the threats journalists face around the world.
Murder of Khashoggi
Khashoggi, a Saudi national and columnist for The Washington Post, was murdered brutally on Oct. 2, 2018 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
After weeks of denying involvement, the kingdom admitted later that Khashoggi had been killed at the consulate but claimed that the Saudi royal family had no prior knowledge of a plot to murder him.
According to reports by the UN and other independent organizations, he was murdered and dismembered. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accepted responsibility for the killing but denied ordering the murder.
