Senior Saudi official threatened UN investigator with death

SANAA, March 25 (YPA) – A senior official has launched a death threat against UN investigator Agnes Callamard following her investigation into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Guardian reported on Tuesday.

In an interview with the British newspaper, the outgoing special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings said a UN colleague alerted her in January 2020 that an anonymous Saudi official had twice threatened during ‘a meeting with other senior UN officials in Geneva to take Callamard. care of “.

She said the comments were seen as a “death threat” by her colleagues.

Callamard, a French national, will join human rights watchdog Amnesty International as secretary general this month, according to the report.

She was the first official to investigate the murder of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi, killed by Saudi agents at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, and to publish a detailed report.

Khashoggi was a former royal insider who often criticized the Saudi government.

In the 100-page report released in June 2019, Callamard said Khashoggi’s death “constituted an extrajudicial murder for which the State of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible.”

The report also says Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) should be investigated into the murder.

Last month, an unclassified US intelligence report also concluded that MBS approved and likely ordered Khashoggi’s murder. The Saudi government has rejected “the negative, false and unacceptable assessment of the report.”

Saudi Arabia has said Khashoggi was killed in a “rogue operation” by agents and Prince Mohammed denied ordering it.

E.M