After Washington agreed to grant immunity to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), a US federal judge dropped a lawsuit against him over his role in the 2018 murder of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi.
Despite what he called “credible claims” of the crown prince’s participation in Khashoggi’s death, US District Judge John D. Bates issued the order on Tuesday.
Bates expressed concern over the decision, but said he lacked the authority to reject the US government’s official position that the prince had immunity as a foreign head of state.
The federal judge said that the suit filed by the ‘slain’ journalist’s widow had “strong and “meritorious” argument that the prince was behind the murder, but Washington’s finding that bin Salman was immune left him no choice but to dismiss the prince as a plaintiff.
He also dismissed the two other Saudi plaintiffs, saying the US court lacked jurisdiction over them.
Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s fiancée, and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a human rights organization he formed before his death, filed the civil action in the federal district court in Washington DC in 2020.
It claimed that Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post columnist, was tortured, assassinated, and dismembered on bin Salman’s orders. The CIA already established that the Saudi crown prince was personally involved in the assassination.
The crown prince and two co-defendants filed motions to dismiss Cengiz’s complaint, claiming that the court lacks jurisdiction.
Bin Salman’s lawyers have asserted that he has sovereign immunity in civil actions brought against him in the United States.
Back in September, the MBS was appointed the country’s prime minister in a cabinet shuffle ordered by King Salman, ahead of the civil lawsuit filed against him in the United States.
The reason for the appointment was not stated in the royal order. Experts concluded at the time that the decision was almost probably tied to the Saudi crown prince’s complicity in Khashoggi’s death in order to shield him from a potentially devastating lawsuit in the United States.
Despite the prince’s recent appointment as Prime Minister, the administration of US President Joe Biden insisted that he be protected.
The Biden administration had already exempted bin Salman from government prosecution in the case, asserting sovereign immunity once more.
Rights groups argue that absolving bin Salman of responsibility in Khashoggi’s murder would give the crown prince permission to commit future atrocities.
Khashoggi, who was assassinated and mutilated by a Saudi hit squad at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, was a vociferous critic of the Saudi regime and the crown prince.
The CIA concluded in 2018 that MBS had ordered the killing of Khashoggi, contradicting Saudi Arabia’s insistence that the crown prince had had no prior knowledge of the plot.
The prince has denied ordering Khashoggi’s killing but acknowledged later that it took place “under my watch.” Saudi officials later blamed “rogue agents” for the journalist’s murder.
