Saudi official threaten with reprisal to UN expert over investigation into Khashkadzhi’s murder

UN human rights expert Agnes Callamar said a senior Saudi Arabian official threatened her in connection with the investigation into the high-profile murder of journalist Jamal Khashkadzhi.

As News Front reported, Khashkadzhi was brutally murdered on October 2, 2018, right in the building of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. As it turned out later, representatives of the Saudi authorities were involved in the incident, in particular, Mohammed ibn Salman, the crown prince of the kingdom.

Callamar became the first official to investigate the murder of Khashkadzhi. In a commentary to The Guardian, she said that a senior Saudi official promised to “take care” of her if the UN did not take care of it.

To a clarifying question about what was meant by this, Callamar replied: “The threat of death. This is how it looked”. 

The alleged threats were made, she said, at a meeting of Saudi diplomats and UN officials in Geneva. Kallamar also noted that representatives of Riyadh then criticized her investigation. In addition, she was accused of receiving money from Qatar as payment for criticism of the Saudis.