Pak Sahafat – Despite his previous human rights gesture, the President of the United States granted immunity to the Saudi Crown Prince in the case of his crimes, especially the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, in order to prove once again that human rights are linked to the interests of this country in the eyes of the American leaders and interests are needed wherever they are.
This approach of the American government and judicial system towards Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has faced widespread criticism from people and human rights institutions worldwide. In the latest case, the human rights organization “Democracy Now for the Arab World” (DAWN) criticized the action of the Biden government in giving immunity to the Saudi Crown Prince in connection with the murder of “Jamal Khashoggi”, a Saudi critic journalist, calling this action a disgusting and wrong political action.
In a statement on its website, the human rights organization “Democracy Now for the Arab World” considered the decision of the Biden government to be a political and legal mistake and declared: The joint legal complaint filed by this organization and Khashoggi’s widow to the US Federal Court is trying to force Bin Salman and 20 other defendants to answer by citing federal and state laws and make them responsible for Khashoggi’s murder.
Sarah Lee Whitson, executive director of “Democracy Now for the Arab World” organization, said: The decision of the Biden administration to offer immunity to Mohammed bin Salman was an unnecessary action that undermines accountability for the heinous crime of Khashoggi’s murder.
He added: The most ridiculous part of the matter is that Biden is exactly the one who promised the American people that he will try with all his might to make Bin Salman accountable for this crime. Not even the Trump administration did what the Biden administration did.
In the complaint filed by this human rights organization, it is said that Mohammed bin Salman and his accomplices ordered the kidnapping, torture, murder and dismemberment of Khashoggi and hiding his body in order to silence him and prevent him from continuing his efforts in the United States.
Neither the Trump administration nor the Biden administration had previously agreed to requests by the Saudi government to offer immunity to Mohammed bin Salman in multiple cases brought against him in the United States.
The White House announced Thursday that the Saudi crown prince’s promotion to prime minister means he is “head of state and, as such, immune from suit.”
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Background
October 2020, two years after Khashoggi’s murder, the human rights organization “Democracy Now for the Arab World” along with the journalist’s candidate, “Khadija Cengiz”, submitted a complaint to the American courts, implicating the Saudi crown prince in the kidnapping conspiracy.
With the publication of the reports of the American intelligence agencies in this case, the legal threats against Bin Salman in the American courts went beyond the Khashoggi case. Bin Salman’s name can be seen in the file prepared by “Saad Al-Jabri”, one of the former senior intelligence officials of Saudi Arabia. In this lawsuit, Bin Salman is accused of trying to return Al-Jabri from exile in Canada to Saudi Arabia, and when his efforts were fruitless, he deployed his “assassination squad” to kill him on Canadian soil; A plot that was thwarted after the attackers were arrested at the Canadian border.
Another case is related to the accusation of Bin Salman by “Ghadeh Owais”, a Lebanese journalist. In this complaint, Bin Salman is accused of being involved in a plan to hack the journalist’s mobile phone and publish stolen personal images in order to discredit him and prevent him from reporting on human rights issues.
The importance of the subject
When Biden first entered the White House, he refused to engage directly with bin Salman. His press secretary at the time argued that the Saudi crown prince, although considered the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, was not the equivalent of the US president.
Last year, US intelligence agencies published a report that the assassination was carried out with the approval of bin Salman; An issue that the Saudi authorities denied.
But the situation did not remain like this and according to the need of the American government for the regional role, energy and capital of Saudi Arabia, the positions of the President of the United States changed in the summer of this year. During his trip to Jeddah, Biden talked with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, and suddenly, the person who violated human rights became a regional partner again.
Although the White House reacted sharply to this issue and announced that it would reconsider its relations with the Saudi royal family, it did not go further to maintain its strategic partnership with Riyadh.
In this way, granting immunity to Bin Salman makes it clear that Biden has completely abandoned his election promise to hold the Saudi Crown Prince accountable for the murder of Khashoggi.
Assessment
In September, King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia temporarily transferred his title of prime minister, which is usually the responsibility of the Saudi king, to the crown prince; Just one month after the end of Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia and the re-opening of the murder case in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Observers called this action an attempt to make him immune from lawsuits, but now with the recent legal decision of the White House and the declaration of immunity, this hypothesis has become true.
Although the White House considered the basis of this legal decision of the Ministry of Justice according to the established principles of international customary law, it can be interpreted in the direction of maintaining relations between Washington and Riyadh. This issue caused what Biden claimed to be human rights at the center of his foreign policy to lose color in the international perspective.