Jamal Khashoggi’s murder: A call for action

After more than two weeks of denials, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has admitted that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The preliminary report shows that Jamal was tortured and dismembered inside the building. However, the Saudi authority and the Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman’s explanation was not satisfactory and […]

After more than two weeks of denials, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has admitted that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The preliminary report shows that Jamal was tortured and dismembered inside the building.
However, the Saudi authority and the Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman’s explanation was not satisfactory and contradictory, and the Saudi bowed to pressure after global outrage on the senseless killing. They admitted that the journalist died in a “fist-fight” inside the consulate. And this alone is an indictment of the Saudi!
It’s obvious that Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was critical of the Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, also known as MBS, and the journalist left the kingdom to escape high-handedness of the authority.
The Washington Post editorial, October 20, 2018 titled “The Saudi explanation for Jamal Khashoggi’s death is fable. Trump plays along. The editorial’s analysis was well- thought out and implicative, put it as, ‘ In an attempt to satisfy demands for accountability while protecting the crown Prince, the regime arrested the members of the team sent to Istanbul and several consular employees, and fired four senior intelligence officials, as well as top aide to the Crown Prince, Saud al-Qahtani. Mr. Qahtani, who drew up a blacklist of critics of MBS, is evidently being scapegoated for targeting Mr. Khashoggi.
The statement added that Mr. Qahtani tweeted last year: “Do you think I can act by myself without taking orders/guidance? I am an employee and a trustworthy executive to the orders of the king and the crown Prince.”
Therefore, any attempt to cover up the murder of Khashoggi by the Saudi will not succeed, the kingdom should ask the Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman to step aside and face charges.
As the Turkish president Tayyip Erdoghan said yesterday when addressing Parliament on the incident, that ‘the killing of Jamal Khashoggi was planned by Saudi officials days in advance.
Erdoghan has indeed taking the right steps for exposing the crime and the efforts of the Turkey authority to do justice to the slain journalist.
And the UN, the IPI, human rights groups should rise in defense of the truth to ensure that the killer- squad and anyone found involved should be brought to justice!
The journalist Khashoggi was killed but, they cannot kill the truth, the colleague of Jamal, Manal Al- Sharif, a Saudi women activist, also wrote, “it’s all part of a state- run plan to silence criticism of the Saudi leadership.”
The blood of the innocent will certainly haunt the perpetrators!
Abdullateef Tanko, Abuja