Biden Admin Requests Immunity for Saudi Crown Prince MBS in Khashoggi Case

[minervadoe]

Biden Admin Requests Immunity for Saudi Crown Prince MBS in Khashoggi Case

The U.S. Department of Justice declared in a court filing on Thursday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should receive immunity from a lawsuit filed by the fiance of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khashoggi disappeared in October 2018 after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, reportedly to obtain documents necessary to marry his fiance Hatice Cengiz. His body has never been found, though Turkish investigators concluded that Saudi government officials killed and dismembered the journalist. Khashoggi was an Islamist writer and critic of the Saudi royal family, leading to accusations that Mohammed bin Salman, known commonly as MBS, ordered the killing.   ....

Leftist American President Joe Biden repeatedly touted the Khashoggi killing as a matter of great importance to him and vowed while running for president to turn the nation of Saudi Arabia itself into a global “pariah.” The pariah campaign appeared to abruptly end this summer, when Biden organized a visit to the country and met with MBS personally, greeting him with a fist bump in the city of Jeddah.

The Justice Department filing in Cengiz’s lawsuit, which named the crown prince as a defendant, declared that MBS was eligible for legal immunity because his father, King Salman, had appointed him prime minister of the country in September. The Justice Department intervened in the suit in response to a State Department request.

“Prime Minister bin Salman as a sitting head of government is immune while in office from the jurisdiction of the United States District Court in this suit,” the filing reportedly read.

“The State Department recognizes and allows the immunity of Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman as sitting head of government of a foreign state,” it continued, adding, “In making this immunity determination, the Department of State takes no view on the merits of the present suit and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi.”     ......

“It’s really beyond ironic that President Biden has basically delivered an assurance of impunity for Mohammed bin Salman, which is the exact opposite of what he promised to do to hold the killers of Jamal Khashoggi accountable,” Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN executive director, said in a statement.

Democrats, and Biden in particular, spent much of 2019 condemning Saudi Arabia and expressing their belief that, rather than a gruesome mistake by consulate staff, Khashoggi’s killing was a direct order from MBS.

“Yes, and I said it at the time. Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered, and I believe on the order of the crown prince,” Biden said during a debate against other Democrat party candidates in 2019. “And I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them, we were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.”

“There’s very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia,” Biden asserted.

“I know that there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia. My views on human rights are clear and long-standing,” Biden wrote, “and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad, as they will be during this trip, just as they will be in Israel and the West Bank.”

 

[minervadoe]

hypocrite

hĭp′ə-krĭt″

noun

1. A person given to hypocrisy.
2. One who assumes a false appearance; one who feigns to be what he is not, or to feel or believe what he does not actually feel or believe; especially, a false pretender to virtue or piety.
3. someone who says they have particular moral beliefs but behaves in way that shows these are not sincere:

 

[railfancwb]

The definition of an honest politician: One who stays bought. Do we have any honest politicians?