The House Committee on Foreign Affairs should seek further details the Trump administration is withholding about the Saudi government's killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Human Rights First and 10 other advocacy groups said in a letter on Thursday to the Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and Ranking Member Michael McCaul
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th March, 2019) The House Committee on Foreign Affairs should seek further details the Trump administration is withholding about the Saudi government's killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Human Rights First and 10 other advocacy groups said in a letter on Thursday to the Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and Ranking Member Michael McCaul."We urge that you demand that the Trump administration provide appropriate members of Congress with the determination of responsibility for Mr. Khashoggi's murder required under Section 1263(d) of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act of 2016, as well as relevant information documenting how the administration came to its determination," the rights groups said in the letter.
The groups further explained that because the administration has demonstrated an unwillingness to provide members of Congress with the determination required by the Global Magnitsky Act, or to supply information relevant to its decision-making in this matter, the committee should hold hearings and possible issue subpoenas to uncover this information.
The letter was also signed by Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, the Open Society Justice Initiative, PEN America, the Project on middle East Democracy, Reporters Without Borders, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Khashoggi went missing on October 2, 2018, after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Riyadh initially denied any knowledge of his whereabouts, but later admitted that the journalist was killed with a drug injection before his body was dismembered and taken out of the consulate.
Many US lawmakers have said they believe that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the killing.
