Agnes Callamard, a United Nations expert on summary has in response to the Saudi’s Crown Prince claims that he accepts responsibility for Khashoggi’s murder despite not giving directives for the gruesome event has attributed his statements as a strategy to save face.
According to her, the Crown Prince is trying to distance himself from the murder by insisting that ‘layers and layers’ of hierarchy separated him from the agents. In his words ”it is impossible to know what three million people working for the Saudi government do daily” and that the gruesome murder of the journalist was a mistake.
In an interview with Reuters News Agency, Agnes has argued that he is trying to remove himself from direct accountability for the killing. Also that instead of acknowledging the murder as a personal killing, it has now been recognized implicitly as a state killing.
“To the extent the killing occurred under his watch, he represents the state, he is indeed quasi head of state,” she said.
Turning to the international implications, Callamard said that if countries around the world did not respond properly to Khashoggi’s killing, “it will open the gate to a sense of impunity for the killing of independent critical voices.” she said.
She also argued that the type of gruesome death Khashoggi suffered had to be premeditated for at least 24 hours and is definitely not a mistake.
