A visit that does not happen. The NGOs denounce the reception this Thursday night by Emmanuel Macron of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman for a dinner organized at the Elysee Palace, the first since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“We can negotiate things in relation to oil, but we do not need to rehabilitate a murderous prince,” lamented this Thursday morning in France Inter Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International.
“Why rehabilitate an individual who ordered the murder of a journalist that was a heinous murder, a person who is responsible for the increase in repression in Saudi Arabia?”, denounces who had led an investigation into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi when he was the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.
Although he acknowledges that the crown prince has carried out “some cultural reforms” since he came to power, he believes that “on a political and ideological level, these are not positive changes at all, on the contrary.” , recalling in particular that “all women’s rights activists have been imprisoned or are unable to leave their homes or travel.”
The dinner is the prince’s first visit to Europe since his international isolation in response to the 2018 murder of journalist critical of the Saudi regime Jamal Khashoggi. His death would have been “validated” by Mohammed Bin Salman, according to US intelligence, which Saudi Arabia denies.
“Two Weights, Two Measures”
“Mohamed Ben Salmane’s reintegration into international relations cannot occur in defiance of truth and justice,” Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said in a press release.
“RSF calls on French President Emmanuel Macron to intervene with Mohamed Ben Salmane so that the 27 journalists currently detained in Saudi Arabia are released,” the NGO also asks.
“MBS can apparently count on Emmanuel Macron to rehabilitate him on the international scene, despite the heinous murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” Human Rights Watch France director Bénédicte Jeannerod also denounced on Twitter, lamenting a “double standard.”
The president of the NGO considers that this return to the favor of Western heads of state is “all the more shocking since many of them expressed their disgust (for the assassination) at that time and their commitment not to bring MBS back into the international community”.
The last meeting between the French president and Mohammed Bin Salman last December had already sparked controversy, with Emmanuel Macron being one of the first Western leaders to take a step towards the Saudi in several years. The French head of state then traveled to Saudi Arabia to discuss “stability” in the Middle East and the situation in Lebanon.
Source: BFM TV
