ISTANBUL — The Biden administration has declared that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia should be granted immunity in a U.S. legal case over his role in the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, effectively blocking yet another effort to hold the kingdom’s leader accountable for the grisly crime.
Mr. Khashoggi was a well-known Saudi journalist who fled Saudi Arabia for the United States and published columns in The Washington Post criticizing Prince Mohammed’s policies. In October 2018, he was killed and dismembered by a team of Saudi agents inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to obtain papers he needed to marry his Turkish fiancée. U.S. intelligence concluded that Prince Mohammed had ordered the operation.
Prince Mohammed, 37, became prime minister in September, formalizing the power he had wielded for years as the country’s de facto ruler, although his elderly father, King Salman, remains the official head of state. In a letter to the Justice Department on Thursday, the State Department said Prince Mohammed should be “immune while in office” as the head of the Saudi government, referring to his role as prime minister.
Prince Mohammed has said repeatedly that he had no prior knowledge of the plot against Mr. Khashoggi, but that he accepted symbolic responsibility for it as the nation’s de facto ruler. » | Ben Hubbard | Friday, November 18, 2022
Biden administration says Mohammed bin Salman should be granted sovereign immunity in Khashoggi civil case: Court filing says Saudi crown prince’s promotion to the role of prime minister meant that he was ‘the sitting head of government and, accordingly, immune’ »
Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi leader given US immunity over Khashoggi killing: The US has determined that Saudi Arabia's de facto leader - Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - has immunity from a lawsuit filed by murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi's fiancé[e]. »
