TEHRAN, Mar 27 -The United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Agnes Callamard, says Saudi Arabia’s investigation into the murder of prominent dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi falls short of international standards.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -In November, the kingdom’s Public Prosecutor indicted 11 unnamed suspects for the killing, which is believed to have been ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. Khashoggi, a US-based Washington Post columnist, disappeared after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 last year. He never came out.
On Thursday, Callamard, who is leading an international inquiry into the murder, called on the kingdom to reveal the defendants' names and charges and the fate of 10 others initially arrested, denouncing what she called the lack of transparency of the kingdom’s investigation and legal proceedings.
"The Government of Saudi Arabia is grievously mistaken if it believes that these proceedings, as currently constituted, will satisfy the international community, either in terms of procedural fairness under international standards or in terms of the validity of their conclusions,” she said in a statement.
“The current proceedings contravene international human rights law according to which the right to a fair trial involves the right to a public hearing,” she added.
Senior Saudi officials were “criminally responsible” if they failed to investigate and prosecute those responsible for killing the Washington Post columnist, Callamard noted.
In early January, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it could not assess the fairness of a trial underway in Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s murder.
Last month, the UN-led probe concluded that Khashoggi had been the victim of a “brutal and premeditated killing” planned and perpetrated by the kingdom's officials.”
Source:presstv
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