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United Nations – The former Saudi intelligence chief said Friday that the kingdom would never accept an international investigation into journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death or outside interference.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, speaking in front of the International Institute for Peace, a think tank, said that Saudi Arabia had made no attempt to conceal the death of Mr. Khashoggi in his consulate in Istanbul and had blamed the changing narrative of Riyadh events on the flow of information to Saudi leaders.
"The kingdom will not accept that an international tribunal is considering a Saudi case," said Prince Turki. "And the Saudi judicial system is healthy, it is operational and it works and it will take its course."
Mr. Khashoggi, columnist for the Washington Post and critic for Saudi Arabia's voice, entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2 for marriage-related formalities and never did it. quits. Turkish investigators said that a Riyadh men's team comprising a close associate of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had strangled Mr. Khashoggi and dismembered his body.
Saudi Arabia denied that the royal family or the Crown Prince ordered the killing and blamed rogue elements of his intelligence apparatus and arrested nearly a dozen people.
Turkey said earlier this week that agents sent to Istanbul by Saudi Arabia to help investigate Khashoggi's disappearance were aimed at removing evidence of a murder. Until now, Turkish investigators have found no trace of the body and Saudi Arabia has not disclosed any information about where it is located.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called Khashoggi's death a success planned by the Saudi state.
Prince Turki stated that he did not know where Mr. Khashoggi's body was, but said that this information would be disclosed as part of the "information we expect from the authorities".
The disappearance and death of Mr. Khashoggi created an international outcry in the United States and beyond. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, as well as human rights groups and the press have called for an independent investigation.
Rights groups have said that Saudi Arabia can not investigate itself. They cited the creation of an independent US commission to investigate the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
"Only the United States has the credibility and independence to denounce the brains behind Khashoggi's enforced disappearance and to hold them accountable for their actions," Louis Charbonneau, director of the human rights program, said last month. United States to Human Rights Watch.
US officials say an international investigation would require Saudi Arabia's cooperation in sharing evidence and making witnesses available for interviews. According to the United States, Turkey, as a Member State conducting an investigation, can ask Mr Guterres to open an investigation led by the United States.
Write to Farnaz Fassihi at [email protected]
