The US government said on Thursday that the Saudi Arabian prince, Mohammed bin Salman should consider himself immune from legal action injustice for his role in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a radical departure for Joe Biden in terms of the attitude he took during his presidential campaign, where denounced the heir for the brutal murder.
The government said bin Salman’s senior official, de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and also recently named prime minister, is expected to protect him from a lawsuit filed by Khashoggi’s fiancée and Khashoggi’s rights group, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).
The the request is not binding and a judge will ultimately decide whether to grant immunity. However, it is bound to infuriate human rights activists and many US lawmakers, such as Saudi Arabia he escalated the confinement and other reprisals against peaceful critics at home and abroad.
It has also cut oil productiona move seen as undermining efforts by the United States and its allies to punish Russia for its war against Ukraine.
A “purely legal” decision.
On Thursday, the State Department settled the request to protect the Saudi crown prince in US courts as a “purely legal determination” .
The State Department cited what it said was a long-standing precedent. Despite his recommendation to the court, he stated in his filing that “does not comment on the merits of this claim and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous assassination of Jamal Khashoggi”.
Saudi officials killed Khashoggi at the Arab consulate in Istanbul. He is believed to have been dismembered, although his remains have never been found.
The US intelligence community has come to the conclusion that the Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince had approved the assassination by the journalist, who had written critically about the prince’s harsh methods of silencing those he saw as rivals or critics.
The Biden administration’s statement on Thursday indicated visa restrictions and other penalties it had imposed on lower-ranking Saudi officials over the deaths.
“Since the early days of this administration, the United States has expressed grave concern about the responsibility of Saudi agents in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” the State Department said. your statement he did not mention the crown prince’s supposed role.
Joe Biden’s attitude during the presidential campaign
Biden, as a candidate, has promised make Saudi rulers “pariahs” for Khashoggi’s murder in 2018.
“I think it was outright murder,” Biden said on a CNN town hall in 2019, as a candidate. “And I think we should have set it that way. I said publicly at the time that we should have treated it that way and there would be consequences to how we treat that…that power.”
But Biden, as president, did it he tried to ease tensions with the kingdomeven banging fists with Prince Mohammed during a trip to the kingdom in July as the United States works to get Saudi Arabia to reverse a series of oil production cuts.
Khashoggi’s fiancée Hatice Cengiz and DAWN are suing the crown prince, his top aides and others in federal court in Washington for their alleged role in Khashoggi’s murder. Saudi Arabia says so the prince had no direct role in murder.
“It is beyond irony that President Biden single-handedly ensured that MBS can escape accountability when it was President Biden who promised the American people that he would everything possible to make him accountableDAWN director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement, using the prince’s acronym.
Biden had ruled out in February 2021 that the US government would punish the prince for the murder of Khashoggi, a resident of the Washington area.
Biden, speaking after authorizing the release of a declassified version of intelligence findings on Mohammed bin Salman’s role in the assassination, argued at the time that there was no precedent for the United States to act against the leader of a strategic partner.
The US military has plenty of time protect Saudi Arabia from external enemiesin exchange for this country keeping the world’s oil markets afloat.
Source: AP
Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.