A U.S. judge has dropped a prosecution against Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who allegedly authorised the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after the Biden administration’s determination that he has “sovereign immunity.”
District court Judge John Bates in Washington, D.C., stated on Tuesday, December 6, that the claims were “credible” and that he felt uncomfortable dropping the case.
President Joe Biden was accused of disrespecting the memory of Khashoggi after the State Department’s declaration that the crown prince was immune to prosecution.
Khashoggi disappeared without any record after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
It is claimed that Saudi officials killed him, mutilated his body, and then put his parts in trash bags.
Judge Bates claimed in his written judgment that the State Department’s decision left him powerless, although Prince Mohammed bin Salman was only appointed prime minister six days before the Biden administration declared he had immunity.
The judge wrote: “Despite the court’s uneasiness, then, with both the circumstances of bin Salman’s appointment and the credible allegations of his involvement in Khashoggi’s murder, the United States has informed the court that he is immune, and bin Salman is therefore entitled to head of state immunity . . . while he remains in office.
“Accordingly, the claims against bin Salman will be dismissed based on head-of-state immunity.”
Meanwhile, Prince Mohammed bin Salman has consistently refuted any participation in Khashoggi’s murder.
Khashoggi’s fiancée Hatice Cengiz and a Middle Eastern human rights advocacy group DAWN, filed the lawsuit in an effort to seek retribution for the journalist’s murder.
Khashoggi, who lives in the US, entered the consulate on October 2, 2018, to obtain the paperwork he needed to be married. However, he was never seen again.
Khashoggi, who was injected with an “unknown drug,” allegedly screamed in agony as he was dragged from the Saudi consul general’s office to a table in the adjacent study, and surgically dismembered, according to an audio recording that was supposedly taken from the journalist’s Apple Watch.
A group of 15 Saudi agents had gone to Turkey to see Khashoggi inside the consulate. They included a forensic physician, security and intelligence personnel, and others who worked for the crown prince’s office.
According to U.S. intelligence officials, the killing was masterminded by the prince.
Khashoggi’s fiancée, Cengiz expressed her grief on Twitter after learning of the prince’s immunity from punishment from the State Department.
She said, “Jamal died once more today.”
Cengiz added, “We thought maybe there would be a light to justice from #USA But again, money came first.
“Biden saved the murderer by granting immunity. He saved the criminal and got involved in the crime himself. Let’s see who will save you in the hereafter?”
In an interview with CNN on Friday morning, Cengiz said, “Biden himself betrayed his word, betrayed Jamal. History will not forget this wrong decision.”
This comes soon after Biden was seen bumping fists with the Saudi ruler during a meeting in Jeddah a few months earlier.
The president said that when he met with the crown prince in July, he was “straightforward and direct” in telling him the killing was wrong.
