Joe Biden’s administration said Saudi Arabia’s crown prince should be considered immune from a legal claim over his role in the murder of a US-based journalist.
Joe Biden’s administration said Saudi Arabia’s crown prince should be considered immune from a legal claim over his role in the murder of a US-based journalist.
It is a U-turn from the US president’s campaign trail denunciations of Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the brutal killing.
The administration said the senior position of the crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and recently named prime minister as well, should shield him against a claim brought by the fiancee of slain columnist Jamal Khashoggi and by the rights group Khashoggi founded, Democracy For The Arab World Now (Dawn).
The request is non-binding and a judge will ultimately decide whether to grant immunity.
But it is bound to anger human rights activists and many US politicians, coming after Saudi Arabia has stepped up imprisonment and other retaliation against peaceful critics at home and abroad and has cut oil production – a move seen as undercutting efforts by the US and its allies to punish Russia for its war against Ukraine.
The US State Department on Thursday branded the administration’s call to shield the Saudi crown prince “purely a legal determination”.
It cited what it said was a longstanding precedent.
Despite its recommendation to the court, the State Department said it “takes no view on the merits of the present suit and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi”.
Saudi officials killed Mr Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
They are believed to have dismembered him, although his remains have never been found.
The US intelligence community concluded Saudi Arabia’s crown prince approved the killing of the widely known and respected journalist, who had written critically of Prince Mohammed’s harsh ways of silencing of those he considered rivals or critics.
