Khashoggi Case Requires Int'l Investigative Body Like Kosovo Specialist Chambers - Lawyer

Khashoggi Case Requires Int'l Investigative Body Like Kosovo Specialist Chambers - Lawyer

The case of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi requires the establishment of an international investigative institution, similar to the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, Toby Cadman, the co-founder of the Guernica Group, told Sputnik after the publication of a UN report on Khashoggi's killing

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th June, 2019) The case of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi requires the establishment of an international investigative institution, similar to the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, Toby Cadman, the co-founder of the Guernica Group, told Sputnik after the publication of a UN report on Khashoggi's killing.

The report, summarizing the results of a six-month investigation by UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard into Khashoggi's murder, was released on Wednesday. It concluded the journalist was the victim of an "extrajudicial killing, for which the State of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible."

"The UN Human Rights Council should form a special commission of inquiry, with a mandate to conduct a criminal investigation that can be used to establish criminal responsibility. In very much the same way that the EU special investigation team in Kosovo was the precursor to the establishment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, a special investigative team for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi should be established, leading to the creation of an international body to put those persons responsible on trial," Cadman, who is also the co-head of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers in London, said.

According to the lawyer, the Saudi authorities cannot be brought to trial at the Hague-Based International Criminal Court (ICC), because neither Saudi Arabia nor Turkey, where the crime was committed, are state parties to the ICC's Rome Statute.

Cadman also stressed that a "state-sponsored murder on foreign soil should not be left unpunished.

"The planning and carrying out of a state-sponsored execution, ordered at the highest levels, in the premises of a diplomatic mission, shows a complete disregard for the rule of law nor for any notion of holding senior state officials responsible. The disregard for human life and human dignity is astounding," he underlined.

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al Jubeir said after the release of the UN report that Riyadh was against any attempts to take the case on the killing of Khashoggi out of the country's jurisdiction.

Khashoggi, who was a well-known critic of Saudi policies, went missing last October after he entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey's Istanbul. Riyadh initially denied any knowledge of the journalist's whereabouts but eventually admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside the embassy and alleged that his body had been dismembered.

Saudi authorities have charged 11 people with Khashoggi's murder. Ankara has, meanwhile, demanded that the accused be extradited to Turkey and that Riyadh reveal the whereabouts of the journalist's remains.