*PARIS: Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has accusedSaudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and several top officialsof committing crimes against humanity in a criminal complaint filed inGermany.*
The 500-page complaint, filed on Monday with the German Public ProsecutorGeneral in the Karlsruhe federal court, includes allegations of arbitrarydetention of more than 30 journalists and the murder of Washington Postcolumnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Prince Mohammed has denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s killing. OtherSaudi figures named in the RSF filing could not be reached for comment andthe Saudi government’s media office did not immediately respond to arequest for comment.
“Those responsible for the persecution of journalists in Saudi Arabia,including the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, must be held accountable for theircrimes,” RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in a statement.
RSF said it filed the lawsuit in Germany because of its principle ofuniversal jurisdiction, allowing its courts to prosecute crimes againsthumanity committed anywhere, and that other names could be added to thecomplaint at a later stage.
The German prosecutor’s office said it had received the complaint and wasassessing the legal and factual merits of it.
Germany’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests forcomment.
Read Top Stories
The other officials named in the RSF complaint were Saud al-Qahtani, whowas seen as the crown prince’s right-hand man; Ahmed Mohammed al-Asiri, aformer royal court adviser; Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a general; and Mohammadal-Otaibi, the Saudi Istanbul Consul General at the time of Khashoggi’smurder.
The filing follows the publishing of a declassified intelligence assessmentby the United States last Friday which concluded that Prince MbS approvedthe operation to “kill or capture” Khashoggi.
Washington also announced visa bans on some Saudis it believes wereinvolved in the killing and imposed sanctions on others.
Saudi Arabia said it completely rejected “the negative, false andunacceptable” intelligence assessment.