Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist, was killed by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.[4][5] Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi operatives.[6][7] His body was dismembered and disposed of in some way that was never publicly revealed.[8] The consulate had been secretly bugged by the Turkish government and Khashoggi's final moments were captured in audio recordings, transcripts of which were subsequently made public.[9][6][10]
Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey
For murder:
Fahad Shabib Albalawi
Turki Muserref Alshehri
Waleed Abdullah Alshehri
Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb
Salah Mohammed Tubaigy
Death for murder: five persons
Imprisonment for cover-up of the murder: three other persons
The New York Times reported in June 2019 that Saudi government engaged in an extensive effort to cover up the killing, including destroying evidence.[7] By 16 October, separate investigations by Turkish officials and The New York Times had concluded that the murder was premeditated and that some members of the Saudi hit team were closely connected to Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.[11]
After repeatedly shifting its account of what happened to Khashoggi in the days following the killing, the Saudi government admitted on 25 October that he had been killed in a premeditated murder,[12][13] but denied that the killing took place on the orders of bin Salman.[12][14][15] Bin Salman said he accepted responsibility for the killing "because it happened under my watch" but asserted that he did not order it.[6]
By November 2019, the US Central Intelligence Agency had concluded that bin Salman had ordered the murder.[1] In the same month, the United States levelled sanctions against 17 Saudis over the murder, but did not sanction bin Salman himself.[16] President Donald Trump disputed the CIA assessment, expressed support for bin Salman, and stated that the investigation into Khashoggi's death had to continue.[17]
The murder prompted intense global scrutiny and criticism of the Saudi government.[18] A report by the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions in June 2019 concluded that Khashoggi's murder was premeditated and called for a criminal investigation by the UN and, because Khashoggi was a resident of the United States, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.[7][18] Saudi prosecutors rejected the findings of the UN investigation and again asserted that the killing was not premeditated.[18]
In January 2019, trials began in Saudi Arabia against 11 Saudis accused of involvement in Khashoggi's murder.[19][18] In December 2019, following secretive proceedings, three defendants were acquitted; five were sentenced to death; and three others were sentenced to prison.[18] Two of the acquitted defendants, Saud al-Qahtani and Ahmed al-Asiri, were high-level Saudi security officials. The five men sentenced to death were low-level participants and were pardoned in May 2020 by Khashoggi's children.[18][20] The results of the trial were criticized by Agnès Callamard, then-UN Special Rapporteur who investigated the murder.[18]
Assassination[edit]
According to numerous anonymous police sources, Turkish police believe that Khashoggi was tortured and killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul[76][77] by a 15-member team brought in from Saudi Arabia for the operation.[78][79] One such source claimed the dead body was dismembered, and that the entire assassination had been recorded by the killers on a videotape taken out of Turkey afterwards.[77] Middle East Eye cited an anonymous Saudi who said the Tiger Squad brought Khashoggi's fingers to Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh as other evidence that the mission was successful.[80]
On 7 October, Turkish officials pledged to release evidence showing that Khashoggi was killed.[79] Aktay initially said he believed Khashoggi had been killed in the consulate,[77] but on 10 October he claimed that "the Saudi state is not blamed here", something that a journalist for The Guardian saw as Turkey trying not to harm lucrative trade ties and a delicate regional relationship with Saudi Arabia.[74] Turkey then claimed to have audio and video evidence of the killing occurring inside the consulate.[81] U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States had asked Turkey for the recordings.[82] According to "people familiar with the matter", the audio was shared with Central Intelligence Agency agents; a CIA spokeswoman declined to comment.[83]
CNN reported on 15 October that Saudi Arabia was about to admit to the killing, but would claim that it was an interrogation that went wrong.[84] This claim drew criticism from some, considering that Khashoggi was reportedly dismembered and that his killing was allegedly premeditated, and the circumstances, including the arrival and departure of a team of 15 people, including forensic specialists presumed to have been present to hide evidence of the crime, on the same day.[84] Those men had flown on two private jets owned by Sky Prime Aviation, a company controlled by Mohammed bin Salman since its transfer to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund the previous year.[85]
The next day, Middle East Eye reported that, according to an anonymous Turkish source, the killing took about seven minutes and forensic specialist Salah Muhammed al-Tubaigy, who had brought along a bone saw,[86] cut Khashoggi's body into pieces, while Khashoggi was still alive, as he and his colleagues listened to music.[87] The source further claimed, "Khashoggi was dragged from consul general Mohammad al-Otaibi's office at the Saudi consulate ... Tubaigy began to cut Khashoggi's body up on a table in the study while he was still alive," and, "There was no attempt to interrogate him. They had come to kill him."[86]
Reuters reported that al-Otaibi left Istanbul for Riyadh on 16 October. His departure came hours before his home was expected to be searched in relation to the journalist's disappearance.[88] The Wall Street Journal published reports from anonymous sources that Khashoggi was tortured in front of top Saudi diplomat Mohammad al-Otaibi, Saudi Arabia's consul general.[89][90] The Turkish pro-government newspaper Daily Sabah reported on 18 October that neighbours of the consul's residence had observed an unusual barbecue party, which the paper suggested might have been to mask the smell from the incineration of the dismembered corpse: "We have been living here for twelve years but I have never seen them having a barbecue party. That day, they had a barbecue party in the garden."[91]
On 20 October, the Saudi Foreign Ministry reported that a preliminary investigation showed that Khashoggi had died at the consulate while engaged in a fight, the first Saudi acknowledgement of Khashoggi's death.[92] It was also announced that Saud al-Qahtani and Ahmad Asiri had been fired by the Saudi royal court for involvement in Khashoggi's killing.[93] The following day, an anonymous Saudi official said Khashoggi had been threatened with drugging and kidnapping by Maher Mutreb, had resisted and was restrained with a chokehold, which killed him.[94]
On 22 October, Reuters cited a Turkish intelligence source and a high-ranking Arab with access to intelligence and links to members of Saudi's royal court and reported that Saud al-Qahtani, the then-top aide for Mohammed bin Salman, had made a Skype call to the consulate while Khashoggi was held in the room. Qahtani reportedly insulted Khashoggi, who responded in kind. According to the Turkish source, Qahtani then asked the team to kill Khashoggi. Qahtani instructed: "Bring me the head of the dog". According to both sources, the audio of the Skype call was given to Erdogan.[25]
According to Nazif Karaman of the Daily Sabah, the audio recording from inside the consulate revealed that Khashoggi's last words were: "I'm suffocating... take this bag off my head, I'm claustrophobic."[95] On 10 December, the details of the transcript of the audio were described to CNN by an anonymous source.[96]
On 16 November, a Hürriyet columnist reported that Turkey has more evidence, including a second audio recording from the consulate, where the Saudi team reviews the plans on how to execute Khashoggi. He also reported, "Turkish officials also did not confirm [the Saudi prosecutor's claim] that Khashoggi was killed after they gave him a fatal dose of a drug. They say that he was strangled with a rope or something like a plastic bag."[97]
Al-Waqt news quoted informed sources as saying that Mohammad bin Salman had assigned Ahmad Asiri, the deputy head of the Saudi intelligence agency Riasat Al-Mukhabarat Al-A'amah[173] and the former spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, with the mission to execute Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Another military officer with a great deal of experience in dealing with dissidents was the second candidate for the mission.[174] On the same day, Turkish media close to the President published images of what it described as a 15-member "assassination squad" allegedly sent to kill Khashoggi, and of a black van later traveling from the Saudi consulate to the consul's home.[175] On 17 October the Daily Sabah, a news outlet close to the Turkish president, published the names and pictures of the 15-member Saudi team apparently taken at passport control.[176] Additional details about identities were also reported along with their aliases.[177] According to one report, seven of the fifteen men suspected of killing Khashoggi are Mohammed bin Salman's personal bodyguards.[178] The Daily Sabah outlet named and detailed:
Four of these men had received paramilitary training in the United States in 2017 under a U.S. State Department contract, as was publicly revealed in 2021.[191]
A top Pentagon post nominee of US President Donald Trump, Louis Bremer, was grilled on Capitol Hill by Senator Tim Kaine on 6 August 2020, over his firm Tier 1 Group's alleged involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Reportedly, the employees of the private military contracting firm, where Bremer is a member of the board of directors, trained some of the Saudi killers charged in the assassination of Khashoggi. In 2019, David Ignatius – a Washington Post journalist – reported in one of his articles about a similar warning given by the CIA to other government agencies in the US, about Tier 1 Group employees' involvement in the Khashoggi murder case. Bremer denies having any knowledge of the allegations or allegiance of his firm's employees in the Khashoggi assassination.[192][193][194]
Reporters sans frontières lawsuit in Germany[edit]
On 1 March 2021 Reporters sans frontières (RSF) filed a criminal case in the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe against Crown Prince bin Salman for "crimes against humanity" in the murder of Khashoggi, additionally for the arbitrary detention of 34 journalists. RSF cited the Code of Crimes Against International Law (VStGB), under which the specified journalists are victims of multiple counts of crimes against humanity, "including willful killing, torture, sexual violence and coercion, enforced disappearance, unlawful deprivation of physical liberty, and persecution."[204][205][206]
Economic and political boycotts[edit]
Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made calls to boycott Saudi Arabia over the death of Khashoggi.[207]
In October 2018, the UK and the US joined their major European partners in pulling out of a Saudi Arabia's economic forum nicknamed Davos in the desert, in response to the murder of Khashoggi.[208]
WWE was criticized over their Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia and failure to boycott the country over the death of Khashoggi.[209] WWE's Chief Brand Officer, Stephanie McMahon said that "at the end of the day, it is a business decision and, like a lot of other American companies, we decided that we're going to move forward with the event and deliver Crown Jewel for all of our fans in Saudi Arabia and around the world".[210]
Following Khashoggi's assassination, the Turkish president, Erdogan, did not travel to Saudi Arabia again until April 2022, when he met with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.[211]
Aftermath[edit]
On 22 October 2018, Khashoggi's son and brother were summoned to a photo op with King Salman and the heir to the throne, at the Palace of Yamamah, in Riyadh. Salah bin Jamal Khashoggi and his uncle Sahel were received by the royals. Pictures of the event went viral, amid reports that Salah, who lives in Jeddah, has been banned from leaving the country since 2017. A family friend, Yehia Assiri, described the event as "a serious assault on the family".[212][213] Nick Paton Walsh, a senior international correspondent, described it as "a remarkable display of the sustained and catastrophic disconnect between Riyadh and the outside world. As if PR is something you shoot yourself in the foot with."[214] On 24 October 2018, Salah Khashoggi, who holds dual Saudi-US citizenship, and his family left Saudi Arabia for the US.[215]
Other alleged abduction attempts[edit]
Following Jamal Khashoggi's killing and mutilation, several other exiled Saudi activists reported that the Saudi regime attempted to lure them into their embassies.[216] Middle East Eye published claims from an unnamed source with knowledge of Saudi intelligence agencies that the murder is part of a larger operation of silently murdering critics of Saudi government by a death squad named "Tiger Squad", composed of the most trusted and skilled intelligence agents. According to the source, the Tiger Squad assassinates dissidents using varying methods such as planned car accidents, house fires, or poisoning clinics by injecting toxic substances into opponents when they attend regular health checkups. The alleged group members are recruited from different branches of the Saudi forces, directing several areas of expertise. According to Middle East Eye, five members were part of the 15-member death squad who were sent to murder Khashoggi.[80]
Exiled Saudi activist Omar Abdulaziz said he was approached earlier in 2018 by Saudi officials who urged him to visit the Saudi embassy in Ottawa, Canada with them to collect a new passport. The Saudi activist stated that the officials from the Saudi regime "were saying 'it will only take one hour; just come with us to the embassy.'" After Omar Abdulaziz refused, Saudi authorities arrested two of his brothers and several of his friends in Saudi Arabia. Abdulaziz secretly recorded his conversations with those officials, which were several hours long, and provided them to The Washington Post.[217] The source interviewed by Middle East Eye also said the team planned to kill Omar Abdelaziz and claimed prince Mansour bin Muqrin was assassinated by the squad by shooting down his personal aircraft as he was fleeing the country on 5 November 2017 and made to appear as an accidental crash.[80]
Opposition Saudi scholar Abdullah Alaoudh (son of Salman al-Ouda) said he was subjected to a similar plot when he sent in a passport renewal application to the Saudi Embassy in Washington. Alaoudh said, "They offered me a 'temporary pass' that Prominent Saudi women's rights activist Manal al-Sharif also separately reported a similar event during her exile in Australia, having said: "If it weren't for the kindness of God I would have been [another] victim."[216] The Tiger Squad also reportedly killed Suleiman Abdul Rahman al-Thuniyan, a Saudi court judge who was murdered by an injection of a deadly virus into his body when he had visited a hospital for a regular health checkup. "One of the techniques the Tiger Squad uses to silence dissidents or opponents of the government is to 'kill them with HIV, or other sorts of deadly viruses'".[80]
In August 2020, a lawsuit filed by exiled former minister of state, Saad Aljabri, alleged that members of the Tiger Squad were sent to Canada to assassinate him two weeks after Khashoggi was killed, but that they were denied entry by Canadian border security.[218][219] Additionally, Aljabri's son, Khalid, has claimed that his brother-in-law was rendered from Dubai to Saudi Arabia in September 2017, where he was coerced into trying to persuade his wife to attend the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Khalid suspects she would have been abducted had she gone there.[220]
In July 2022, the United Arab Emirates’ authorities arrested an American lawyer, Asim Ghafoor, while he was transiting from the Dubai International Airport. Ghafoor was informed that he was tried, convicted, and sentenced in absentia. The UAE claimed of convicting him of tax evasion and money laundering, and in coordination of the United States.[221][222] However, Ghafoor faced no criminal charges in the States.[223] The U.S. said it did not request the Emirates to arrest Ghafoor.[224] His attorney, Faisal Gill, said Ghafoor never heard anything about the conviction before the arrest and didn’t see any documents for the government’s charges.[223] It was being asserted that Ghafoor was arrested for his close ties with Jamal Khashoggi. They both together founded the organization Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), which is strong critic of the human rights abuses in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and the arms sales by the US to these countries. Ghafoor is still a board member at DAWN. Besides, he had also served as Khashoggi’s lawyer. Rights groups said Ghafoor was another victim of UAE’s practice of convicting activists, lawyers and academics on broad charges.[225][222] On 13 August 2022, Ghafoor was released by the Emirati authorities after paying a fine of $1.4 million.[226] The UAE court also confiscated nearly $4.9 million from Ghafoor.[227]