[ad_1]
The assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi remains a mystery for the most part, Saudi King Salman is touring his country, thanks to previous convictions, while Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a community-witnessed figure as the main suspect in the murder of Khashoggi, remains silent on the issue.
King Salman began a national tour with a first stop in the conservative heart of Qassim province, where he pardoned prisoners serving a prison sentence and announced 16 billion riyals ($ 4.27 billion). ) new projects.
This is the first tour of the king since his accession to the throne in 2015 and comes as the kingdom is under international pressure after the murder of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month.
Istanbul Attorney General Irfan Fidan, who heads the investigation, announced last week that Khashoggi, who had been exiled to the United States, had been strangled immediately after entering the consulate on October 2 as part of a murder and that his body was dismembered before being kidnapped. The case allowed Saudi Arabia and its powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as the MBS, to be examined by an unprecedented international authority, which Khashoggi had criticized.
Overwhelmed by growing international pressure, Saudi Arabia, which has issued conflicting statements about the incident since the very beginning of the crisis, aims to clarify and justify its actions. The government news agency announced yesterday that the government would pay debts of up to R1 million, or $ 267,000, on behalf of each of the pardoned prisoners. The monarch also announced billions of dollars for 600 projects to improve health facilities, roads, schools and other infrastructure in Qassim.
A Saudi diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council Monday that the kingdom's prosecutors were investigating Khashoggi's death and prosecuting the perpetrators.
"The kingdom's leaders have expressed their suffering for the murder of the citizen Jamal Khashoggi," said Bandar al-Aiban, chairman of the Saudi Human Rights Commission in Geneva. According to the instructions of King Salman, "[Saudi] Prosecutors opened investigations into the case to reach all the truths and bring all the defendants to justice and sentence those convicted of this crime, "al-Aiban added.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a Washington Post editorial last week that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest level of the Saudi government and added that the international community had the responsibility to "reveal the masters of puppets ".
Turkey asked Riyadh several questions about the Khashoggi case, asking "where was the corpse", "who ordered the murder with premeditation?" and also "who are the local collaborators?"
Despite the king's efforts, MBS insists on his control POLICYHowever, despite his father's efforts to save the country's prestige, MBS insists on the silence of his record while pursuing his previous controversial policies in the country, including keeping some of the country's elites in prison.
A year after MBS turned the Ritz Carlton hotel into a prison for the kingdom's elite, many remain imprisoned, according to the Washington Post.
The Saudi Attorney General said that 56 people had been imprisoned earlier this year and last month the Crown Prince said only eight of them were still in detention.
"But other people familiar with the detentions said the number was much higher, with 45 Ritz prisoners still locked up," the newspaper said.
Some human rights experts, however, say that the MBS plans to release some prisoners to calm tensions arising as a result of the Khashoggi case. "They do not want to do it, but they are under pressure and they will do it to release some pressure," Yahya Assiri, a human rights activist living in exile in London, told the post. Saudi authorities on Friday released Prince Khaled bin Talal, who criticized MBS 'decision to strip the religious police of its power, according to the newspaper.
Last year, the crown prince tried to strengthen his power and eliminate rivals within the royal family, targeting the family of the late King Abdullah, brother of King Salman.
Despite the king's efforts, the silence of the Crown Prince, coupled with the brutality of the case, gives a lot to an unconvincing image, which pushes the international community to continue to put pressure on the country. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a telephone conversation on Tuesday with his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland, who agreed that all details of the Khashoggi affair should be revealed, while all those involved in the killing should to be punished. Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, who has been criticized by his country's opposition for being silent on the matter, said yesterday that, while Saudi Arabia is the main trading partner of the country, countries in the region, they had not slumped.
[ad_2]Source link
