UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th January, 2020) Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said in a press briefing that the absence of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' follow up investigation into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is disappointing and would prevent from establishing responsibility for the crime.
On June 19, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard issued a report calling on the UN chief to launch a follow-up criminal probe of the killing due to "credible evidence" that warrants further investigation of senior Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. However, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric has said Guterres does not have the authority to start a criminal probe, and such an inquiry would require a resolution from the UN Security Council.
"We were very disappointed that the Secretary-General, didn't follow up," Roth said on Tuesday. "Callamard did what she could with available information. The only real way to get further to the bottom of who specifically ordered the murder, how high up in the Saudi government did that go, would really to be to get to certain intercepts which are not going to be turned over absent an explicit appeal from the Secretary-General."
Roth added that Guterres has been showing reluctance when in publicly condemning human rights violations when the abuser is a powerful country.
Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post, went missing last October after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Riyadh initially denied any knowledge of the journalist's whereabouts but eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside the embassy.
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.
