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Reporters Without Borders files a complaint against MBS before a German court for “crimes against humanity” in connection with the murder of Khashoggi.
The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) lodged a criminal complaint in a German court against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and four other senior officials for “crimes against humanity” in connection with the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The media watchdog’s trial announcement came on Tuesday, four days after the United States released a declassified intelligence report that the Crown Prince, popularly known as MBS, had approved the murder of the Saudi journalist.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist critical of Saudi policies under the crown prince, was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. The gruesome murder led by a Saudi strike team drew global condemnation and damaged global reputation by MBS.
The complaint, which calls for an investigation by prosecutors under German international jurisdiction laws, accuses Saudi Arabia of persecuting Khashoggi and dozens of other journalists.
“We call on the German prosecutor to take a stand,” said Christophe Deloire, secretary general of RSF, in a statement.
“No one should be above international law, especially when crimes of humanity are at stake,” he said.
After the report was released, Khashoggi’s fiancée demanded that MBS be punished “without delay”
The administration of US President Joe Biden has decided not to apply sanctions to the Saudi Crown Prince for Khashoggi’s murder.
Saudi officials denounced the report, insisting that Khashoggi was killed in a “rogue operation” that did not involve the crown prince – the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
But RSF said it gathered evidence of a “state policy of attacking and silencing journalists” that it submitted to the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany on Monday.
His report details the cases of 34 other journalists imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, including blogger Raif Badawi, imprisoned in his home country since 2012 for “insulting Islam”.
The principle of universal jurisdiction was enshrined in German law in 2002. It allows serious crimes such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity to be tried by national courts if international courts are not. an option.
The procedure has already been used, for example, by activists fighting for accountability in Syria, with the trial of two former intelligence operatives over allegations of state torture during that country’s civil war.
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