'Khashoggi killing was an international crime'

By Bayram Altug

GENEVA (AA) - The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has damaged international relations and it was an "international crime", UN's special rapporteur Agnes Callamard told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview.

The UN rapporteur who shared a damning report on the brutal murder of Khashoggi on Wednesday said she called on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to look at this murder as a “springboard to take very effective measures for prevention of targeted killings.”

“We live in a world where individuals- journalists, human rights defenders, dissidents- are targeted by their governments," she said.

"I think the UNHRC has an opportunity and responsibility to take actions to prevent or respond to such killings,” she added.

Callamard said that she has made series of recommendations to the UNHRC and the member states for establishment of an international mechanism for the investigation of targeted killings and to "take a range of actions related to killing of Mr. Khashoggi."

“I'm hoping that the UNHRC can support this initiative and contribute to it,” she added.

The UN rapporteur said she believed that the UN Security Council "has not truly taken stock of the seriousness and the gravity of the killing of Mr. Khashoggi”, adding that “the killing was an international crime, involved and replies a range of violations of international law, has been a major disrupt to international relations.”

It is crucial for the Security Council take these killings seriously and have a discussion on the “implications of targeted civilians, targeted disappearance, targeted killings of dissidents, political activists,” according to Callamard.

Underlining that she was refused a visit to Saudi Arabia within the scope of the investigation of Khashoggi's murder, Callamard said the Saudi authorities have chosen "not to cooperate with me”.

“If they have any information, which they believe, contradict my findings, then I will welcome the opportunity to sit with them,... and to go over their evidence and the fact that they are in their possession that may contradict or not what I have found,” Callamard said.

Callamard said her request to enter the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul where Khashoggi was murdered on 2 October 2018 was also declined by Saudis.

She said: “I think at this stage, there is not much point for me entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

"If I had to make one main wish it would be to have a dialogue with the Saudi authorities”.

The UN rapporteur recommended Turkey to "create a statute [sic.] symbolizing press freedom near the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, representing Jamal Khashoggi."

Khashoggi, a contributor for The Washington Post, was killed and dismembered by a group of Saudi operatives shortly after he entered the country's consulate in Istanbul last October.

Riyadh offered various, conflicting narratives to explain his disappearance before acknowledging he was murdered in the diplomatic building, seeking to blame his death on a botched rendition operation by rogue agents.

A UN report on Wednesday said the murder last fall in Istanbul of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi "constituted an extrajudicial killing" for which "Saudi Arabia is responsible."

In the report, Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said she found "credible evidence" to further probe Saudi officials’ individual liability in the Khashoggi killing at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, including Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

Urging the kingdom to apologize to Turkey for “the abuse of its diplomatic privileges and the violation of the prohibition against extra territorial use of force,” the report also called for further investigations by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the FBI.

* Busra Nur Bilgic from Ankara contributed to this story