Khashoggi killers must be held to account
Saudi Arabia has finally admitted that Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist critical of the Saudi regime and a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. However, the regime, unsurprisingly, distanced itself from the murder, saying it was done by rogue agents who acted beyond their responsibility and authority. It seems like our collective intelligence is being mocked.
CNN has published Turkish surveillance footage of a body double of Jamal Khashoggi who wore his clothes and a fake beard to “prove” that Khashoggi had left the consulate shortly after he entered, as Saudi’s initial narrative went. The body double was reportedly a member of the hit squad suspected of carrying out the assassination. In this case, it looks like that the murder was premeditated – not an interrogation operation gone wrong.
The international community must hold the Saudi regime to account for this grisly murder of a dissident journalist – be it in the form of sanctions or something else.
Saudi Arabia has finally admitted that Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist critical of the Saudi regime and a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. However, the regime, unsurprisingly, distanced itself from the murder, saying it was done by rogue agents who acted beyond their responsibility and authority. It seems like our collective intelligence is being mocked.
CNN has published Turkish surveillance footage of a body double of Jamal Khashoggi who wore his clothes and a fake beard to “prove” that Khashoggi had left the consulate shortly after he entered, as Saudi’s initial narrative went. The body double was reportedly a member of the hit squad suspected of carrying out the assassination. In this case, it looks like that the murder was premeditated – not an interrogation operation gone wrong.
The international community must hold the Saudi regime to account for this grisly murder of a dissident journalist – be it in the form of sanctions or something else.
Karim Abdullah
Dhaka
