The Biden administration has ruled that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should be granted immunity in the lawsuit interned against him by the girlfriend of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post reporter killed in 2018 in the Riyadh consulate in Istanbul.
The request was made by Justice Department lawyers because bin Salman was recently appointed prime minister of Saudi Arabia and, as a result, is entitled to immunity as a foreign head of government.
"Mohammed bin Salman, the prime minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the current head of government and, consequently, is immune from this lawsuit", reads the document, which defines the murder as "heinous".
Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi's girlfriend, and the Washington-based human rights organization founded by the slain dissident journalist initially filed a lawsuit against bin Salman and 28 others in October 2020 in Federal District Court in Washington alleging that the assassins "kidnapped, bound, drugged, tortured and killed" Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul . Then the body was dismembered, the remains were never found.
According to the conclusions of the CIA , it was Mohammed bin Salman who ordered the terrible murder .
(Unioneonline/L)
