The Biden administration has ruled that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has legal immunity from a lawsuit brought against him over the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a court filing Thursday. ).
Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in an operation that US intelligence believes was ordered by Prince Mohammed, who has been the kingdom’s de facto ruler for several years.
“Jamal died again today,” Khashoggi’s fiancée Hatice Cengiz said on Twitter minutes after the news became public. She later added, “We thought maybe there was a light for US justice. But then again, the money came first.”
“This is a legal determination made by the Department of State in accordance with long-standing and well-established principles of customary international law,” a White House National Security Council spokesman said in a written statement. “It bears no relation to the merits of the case.”
In a document filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Justice Department lawyers wrote that “the doctrine of the head of state’s immunity is well established in customary international law.”
Justice Department attorneys said the executive branch of the US government, referring to the Biden administration, “has determined that Defendant bin Salman, as head of a foreign government, enjoys head of state immunity from the jurisdiction of US courts. USA as a result of that office.”
Biden has been criticized for shaking hands with the crown prince on a visit to Saudi Arabia in July to discuss energy and security issues. The White House claimed that Biden told Prince Mohammed that he held him responsible for Khashoggi’s death.
The prince denied ordering Khashoggi’s murder, but later acknowledged that it took place “under my stewardship”.
Khashoggi had criticized the crown prince’s policies in columns for the Washington Post. He had traveled to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain the necessary documents to marry Cengiz, a Turkish citizen.
“It is ironic that President Biden single-handedly ensured that Mohammed bin Salman can escape accountability when it was President Biden who promised the American people that he would do anything to hold them accountable. Not even the Trump administration has done that,” said Sarah Lee Whitson , spokesman for the NGO Democracy for the Arab World Now.
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