A UN human rights investigator on Tuesday said a senior Saudi Arabia official had issued a death threat against her for her investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur on summary executions who led a UN investigation into Khashoggi’s 2018 murder told the Guardian that a senior Saudi official on two occasions had threatened to have Callamard “taken care of” if she does not contain her investigation into the murder. Callamard said the alleged threats were made, at a “high-level” meeting between Geneva-based Saudi diplomats, visiting Saudi officials and UN officials in Geneva.
The outgoing human rights investigator who will be joining Amnesty International as its new secretary-general, said, “It was reported to me at the time and it was one occasion where the United Nations was actually very strong on that issue. People that were present, and also subsequently, made it clear to the Saudi delegation that this was absolutely inappropriate and that there was an expectation that this should not go further.”
Earlier this month, Callamard reiterated her call for sanctions targeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s assets and his international engagements. According to recent declassified US intelligence, he approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi. The United States imposed sanctions on some of those involved but spared the crown prince himself in an effort to preserve relations with the kingdom.
Callamard in a Geneva news conference had said she was disappointed and expected more material evidence to have been released. “It is extremely problematic, in my view, if not dangerous, to acknowledge someone’s culpability and then to tell that someone ‘but we won’t do anything, please proceed as if have we have said nothing’,” she said. “That to me is an extremely dangerous move on the part of the USA,” she said.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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