Jamal Khashoggi: Saudi Arabia plans to swiftly execute all the guilty men
Justice moves fast in Saudi Arabia. By the time you’ve read this, chances are the five suspects charged with ordering and carrying out the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi will have been tried, found guilty of murder and executed. Khashoggi, as you will recall, became newsworthy the world over when he was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October. The country’s prosecutor says 21 people are now in custody, with 11 indicted and referred to trial.
But who is the gang’s leader? Whose idea was it to kill the writer? Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor says it was not Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Deputy Public Prosecutor Shalaan bin Rajih Shalaan said Khashoggi’s body was injected with poison – which killed him, so they say – and dismembered inside the consulate after his death. The remains were then disappeared.
He says investigations “revealed that the person who ordered the killing was the head of the negotiations team” despatched to Istanbul by deputy intelligence chief Gen Ahmed al-Assiri to force Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia from his self-imposed exile in the United States. How the negotiations went is moot. Gen Assiri and another top adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, have been sacked over the matter. The Crown Prince is, however, ok, and a really terrific bloke who knew nothing about any of it. Anyone who’s says he did, can meet him in Yemen – co-ordinates 15.3694° N, 44.1910° E – at precisely 1:19pm tomorrow. Bring the family.
Posted: 15th, November 2018 | In: News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
