Saudi official denies threatening U.N. expert who probed Jamal Khashoggi murder
London — A Saudi Arabian government official denied on Thursday that he had threatened the U.N. expert who led the global body's investigation into the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Agnès Callamard, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, told Britain's Guardian newspaper earlier this week that, during her investigation, a senior Saudi official had told her colleagues at the United Nations that she would be "taken care of" if not reined in.
The United Nations confirmed to the Reuters news agency that the threats reported by the Guardian had been made.
On Thursday, the head of Saudi Arabia's own Human Rights Commission revealed that he believed himself to be the high-ranking official in question.
It has come to my attention that Ms. Agnes Callamard of Amnesty International and some U.N. officials believe I somehow made a veiled threat against her more than a year ago.
— عواد بن صالح العواد Awwad Alawwad (@AwwadSAlawwad) March 25, 2021
"It has come to my attention that Ms. Agnes Callamard of Amnesty International and some U.N. officials believe I somehow made a veiled threat against her more than a year ago," Awwad Bin Saleh al-Awwad said on Twitter. "I reject this suggestion in the strongest terms. While I cannot recall the exact conversations, I never would have desired or threatened any harm upon a U.N.-appointed individual, or anyone for that matter."
Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, when he visited to pick up paperwork for his upcoming marriage.
Initially, Saudi Arabia denied all knowledge of his death. Then the government said he had been killed in the consulate by a group of "rogue operators" who had been sent to forcibly return him to Saudi Arabia. Five people were eventually sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for the Khashoggi's murder, though those sentences were later commuted to prison time.
The investigation by Callamard, who will soon become Amnesty International's secretary general, concluded that there was "credible evidence" showing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other officials had called for the killing of Khashoggi, who was a contributor to the Washington Post and a U.S. resident. She called for sanctions against the powerful heir to the Saudi throne.
In February, the Biden administration declassified an intelligence report which also concluded that bin Salman had approved Khashoggi's murder, but the White House took no action specifically against the Crown Prince.