A complaint for complicity in torture and enforced disappearance in connection with the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was filed Thursday in Paris against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, visiting France, announced two NGOs and their French lawyer.
The 42-page complaint claims that MBS “is an accomplice to the torture and enforced disappearance of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018” and that he “does not enjoy immunity from prosecution because, as as crown prince, he is not head of state”, specify Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), founded by the Saudi journalist, and Trial International in a press release.
The complaint with civil action was filed with the dean of the investigating judges of the Paris court on Thursday morning, NGO lawyer Me Henri Thulliez told AFP. This procedure leads to the quasi-systematic opening of a judicial inquiry and the appointment of an investigating judge.
A visit to France that makes people talk
As a first step, French justice must ensure France’s jurisdiction, the imputability of the facts to the person concerned and the existence or not of immunity for the latter before initiating investigations. Emmanuel Macron is due to receive MBS, de facto leader of the Saudi kingdom, on Thursday for a “working dinner” scheduled for 8:30 p.m. at the Élysée.
The presence in France of the crown prince, for whom this is the first visit to Europe since the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, has aroused the great anger of human rights defenders.
“The visit of MBS to France and of Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia does not change the fact that MBS is none other than a killer”, lamented to AFP Agnès Callamard, who had led an investigation into the assassination. by Saudi agents of Jamal Khashoggi when she was UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.
American intelligence had pointed the responsibility of MBS
Columnist for the Washington Post, critic of Saudi power, the journalist was killed and dismembered on October 2, 2018 in the premises of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had come to seek the papers necessary for his marriage.
The American intelligence services had pointed the responsibility of Mohammed ben Salmane in the assassination of the journalist. The crown prince, he denies having ordered the assassination, even if he says he bears the responsibility for it as a leader.