Murder Of Saudi Critic Fails To Gain Ground, Crown Prince Immune From Lawsuit

Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman has been linked to the murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi but it appears that filing a case against the Crown Prince won’t be happening.

This was after it was found that the de facto leader has immunity from a lawsuit filed by the fiancé of the murdered journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, BBC reported.

It was on October 2018 when Kashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. According to US Intelligence, the Saudi critic was killed on the orders of Prince Mohammed.

However, per court filings, Mohammed has immunity because of his new role as Saudi prime minister.

As a result of this, the fiancé of Kashoggi, Hatice Cengiz ended up frustrated. In fact on social media, she said that the ruling practically killed the Saudi critic once again.

Cengiz, along with the human right group Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), founded by Mr. Khashoggi, were seeking damages in the United States from the crown prince for the murder of Khashoggi.

Mohammed bin Salman and his officials were being accused of kidnapping, bounding, drugging and torturing the US-resident journalist.

"Today it is immunity. It all adds up to impunity," Agnes Callmard, the secretary general of Amnesty International stated.

It was on September 28, 2018, Kashoggi first visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a Saudi document stating that he was divorced. This was for him to marry Cengiz, BBC mentioned in a separate report.

However, the journalist was told to return on Oct. 2 to pick up the document. He did return on that day, accompanied by Cengiz.

Khashoggi even gave Cengiz two mobile phones, instructing her to call an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should anything go wrong or if he would not come back out.

The fiancé waited for more than 10 hours outside the consulate and returned the next morning when Khashoggi did not reappear.

On Oct. 20, the Saudi government alleged that the journalist died after a fight for resisting arrest. It was later found by a Saudi official that Kashoggi had died due to a chokehold.

Five individuals had confessed to the murder, Mr. Shalaan asserted, adding: "[The crown prince] did not have any knowledge about it."