Journalist Jamal Kashqji (left) and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. AFP=Yonhap News
A report from the U.S. intelligence agency, which concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, approved the assassination of journalist Jamal Kashqji, who criticized the Saudi royal family, has been released.
According to CNN broadcasting on the 26th (local time), the four-page declassification report released by the US National Intelligence Service (DNI) on that day contained this content.
The report said, “It is evaluated that Prince Bin Salman approved the operation to capture or kill Kashukji in Istanbul, Turkey,” and said, “It is very unlikely that Saudi Arabia would have performed such an operation without the permission of the Crown Prince.”
The report also explained that Prince Bin Salman saw Kashuk as a’threat to the kingdom’ and broadly supported the use of violent means if necessary to silence him. However, although the Saudi side had planned an unspecified operation against Kashqji in advance, it was not known how much they decided to harm Kashukji.
Kashqji lives in the United States and has written a column for the Washington Post (WP) criticizing the Saudi royal family. He was brutally murdered after visiting the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul, Turkey in October 2018 to obtain a marriage certificate to a Turkish fiance.
The Saudi Supreme Court sentenced each party, who was handed over to trial for murdering Kashqji, to 7 to 20 years in prison. However, the Saudi courts were criticized at the time for judging that it was an accidental murder, not a planned murder.
Crown Prince Bin Salman was named behind the incident, but the Saudi government denied it. However, Western intelligence officials recognized that the assassination of Kashqzi had been ordered by Prince Bin Salman, and a report from the U.S. National Intelligence Service of this perspective was also released. The Saudi government also denied the contents of the report from the National Intelligence Service.
Meanwhile, US authorities have imposed sanctions on 76 Saudi citizens, including visa restrictions. Local media cited officials and reported that a former high-ranking Saudi intelligence official related to the assassination of Kashukji was included in the sanctions.
Reporter Na Unchae [email protected]
