Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recent appointment as the country’s prime minister has granted him immunity in a lawsuit he faces over the 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi, his lawyers claimed Monday.
The prince’s father, King Salman, named him prime minister in a royal decree last week, with his new role in line with responsibilities he was already exercising, according to Reuters.
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“The Royal Order leaves no doubt that the Crown Prince is entitled to status-based immunity,” said the lawyers, who have requested for his case to be dismissed.
The crown prince, also known as MBS, is facing a U.S. lawsuit over the assassination of Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and dissident who had been critical of the crown prince’s policies and whose killing by Saudi agents is believed by U.S. intelligence to have been ordered by the crown prince. Khashoggi was killed in Istanbul when he visited the city to get the papers he needed to marry Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish citizen.
The lawsuit, filed jointly by Cengiz and a human rights group founded by Khashoggi, charges that Mohammed and 20 other co-defendants had carried out a plot that would “permanently silence Mr. Khashoggi” after discovering he planned to use the human rights group as “a platform to espouse democratic reform and promote human rights.”
During a visit President Joe Biden made to Saudi Arabia in July, the president said he told the crown prince directly that he still holds him responsible for Khashoggi’s murder. Biden had promised on the campaign trail to make the “pariah” kingdom “pay” for Khashoggi’s death and, upon taking office, released a U.S. intelligence report that deemed the crown prince responsible.
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The crown prince has denied ordering Khashoggi’s killing, though later acknowledged that it took place under his watch.
The Public Interest Declassification Board recommended in June that Biden release a complete assessment of the Saudi Arabian journalist’s assassination, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. However, the president has not released the assessment four months after the letter was sent.
