Secretary General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit confirmed that the Saudi judicial authorities are solely concerned with holding accountable those involved in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.<\/p>\n
His remarks come a day after a US intelligence report claiming that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had approved an operation to capture or kill the Saudi journalist in Saudi Arabia\u2019s consulate in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
Aboul Gheit, in a statement, expressed support for the statement issued by the Saudi Foreign Ministry to reject the conclusions of the CIA report on the issue.<\/p>\n
The Arab League statement indicated that the CIA is not an international ruling or decision-making body, stressing that human rights issues should not be politicized.<\/p>\n
The 59-year-old Khashoggi was killed in October 2018 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. His body has never been found.<\/p>\n
In December 2019, Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death and three to jail over involvement in the murder of the Saudi journalist.<\/p>\n
A year later, a Saudi court jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years, four months after his family forgave his killers and enabled death sentences to be set aside.<\/p>\n
Saudi response<\/p>\n
The Saudi Foreign Ministry on Friday said it \u201ccompletely rejects\u201d the report, saying that the report contained \u201cinaccurate information and conclusions,\u201d Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Kingdom rejects any measure that infringes upon its leadership, sovereignty, and the independence of its judicial system,\u201d the statement by the ministry said.<\/p>\n
The ministry said it has followed the report, which was submitted to the US Congress regarding the \u201cheinous\u201d murder of Khashoggi, reiterating the conclusions previously announced by the relevant authorities in the Kingdom on the murder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis crime was committed by a group of individuals that have transgressed all pertinent regulations and authorities of the agencies where they were employed,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relevant authorities in the Kingdom took all possible measures within our legal system to ensure that these individuals were properly investigated, and to ensure that justice was served.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe concerned individuals were convicted and sentenced by the courts in the Kingdom, and these sentences were welcomed by the family of Jamal Khashoggi, may he Rest in Peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an abhorrent crime and a flagrant violation of the Kingdom\u2019s laws and values,\u201d the ministry stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is truly unfortunate that this report, with its unjustified and inaccurate conclusions, is issued while the Kingdom had clearly denounced this heinous crime, and the Kingdom\u2019s leadership took the necessary steps to ensure that such a tragedy never takes place again,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Egypt Today <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Secretary General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit confirmed that the Saudi judicial authorities are solely concerned with holding accountable those involved in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. His remarks come a day after a US intelligence report claiming that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had approved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":216801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7863],"tags":[45638,2484,43301],"class_list":["post-216800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-section","tag-ahmed-aboul-gheit","tag-egypt","tag-jamal-khashoggi"],"yoast_head":"\n