Geneva: The lack of action by the United Nations (UN) after the brutal slaying of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has raised questions about the organisation’s credibility, his fiancee Hatice Cengiz has said. It was high time for the UN – and individual countries – to take action against those responsible, she added.
A UN rights expert who wrote a damning report on the killing also regretted the ‘disappointing’ response from UN chief Antonio Guterres.
More than 17 months after his murder, Cengiz was at the UN office here this week to press her case for justice for Khashoggi, a harsh critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Khashoggi, a ‘Washington Post’ contributor and US resident, was killed October 2, 2018 while at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork ahead of his wedding to Cengiz.
Turkish officials say a 15-man Saudi squad strangled him and cut his body into pieces. His remains were never found. Riyadh insists he was killed in a ‘rogue’ operation.
The killing brought international condemnation, but Cengiz told reporters Tuesday that the lack of follow-up action was ‘causing me and others to question the validity of the UN’.
Speaking through a translator, the Turkish researcher said it was high time for the UN to ‘assert themselves as the body that has a right to bring sanctions… to punish those who are guilty’. Many European nations were ‘really uncomfortable’ with the ‘hideous crime’, said Cergiz.
“I’m here especially to encourage the countries that (do not wish to) keep political and economic interests ahead of everything else,” Cerzig told reporters. “Although I personally was most affected by this, the whole world knew about it,” she added.
Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, echoed her position Monday. In June last year, she released a damning report that found ‘credible evidence’ linking the Saudi crown prince to the killing.
The independent rights expert, who does not speak for the UN but who reports her findings to it, urged the global body to initiate an international criminal probe.
“What’s happening right now is a major indictment of the capacity of the international community to hold governments to account,” she told this agency.
Callamard said world nations ‘should not be held hostage of the Saudi unwillingness and inability to meet their obligations’. She urged UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to be bold. She asserted that the institution was ‘weak’ on dealing with targetted killings. “It is disappointing that the secretary-general has not done or said much about the killing,” the expert said.
Despite a torrent of international condemnation over the murder of Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Prince Mohammed appears to have strengthened his position.
Saudi authorities have detained three princes including King Salman’s brother and nephew for allegedly plotting a coup, three sources said Saturday, signalling Prince Mohammed’s tightening grip on power.
AFP