The government said the senior position of the crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and newly appointed prime minister, should protect him against a lawsuit brought by the fiancee of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the rights group that founded by Khashoggi, Democracy. for the Arab world now. The request is not binding and the judge will ultimately decide whether to grant immunity. But it is sure to anger human rights activists and many US lawmakers as Saudi Arabia has stepped up jailing and other reprisals against peaceful critics at home and abroad and cut oil production, a move seen as undermining the efforts of the US and its allies to punish Russia for its war against Ukraine. The State Department on Thursday called the administration’s call to shield the Saudi crown prince from US courts over Khashoggi’s killing a “purely legal determination.” The State Department cited what it said was a longstanding precedent. Despite its recommendation to the court, the State Department said in a filing late Thursday, it “takes no view on the merits of this action and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous killing of Jamal Khashoggi.” Saudi officials killed Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. It is believed that he was dismembered, although his remains have never been found. The US intelligence community concluded that the Saudi crown prince had approved the killing of the well-known and respected journalist, who had written critically of Prince Mohammed’s harsh ways of silencing those he saw as rivals or critics. The story continues The Biden administration’s statement on Thursday noted the visa restrictions and other sanctions it had imposed on low-ranking Saudi officials over the death. “Since the earliest days of this administration, the United States government has expressed its grave concerns about the responsibility of Saudi agents for the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi,” the State Department said. His statement did not mention the alleged role of the crown prince himself. Biden as a candidate promised to “outcast” the Saudi rulers over Khashoggi’s 2018 murder. “I think it was a blatant murder,” Biden said at a CNN town hall in 2019, as a candidate. “And I think we should have done it that way. I said publicly at the time that we have to deal with it that way, and there should be consequences for how we deal with this – this force.” But Biden as president has sought to ease tensions with the kingdom, including clashing with Prince Mohammed on a July trip to the kingdom, as the US works to persuade Saudi Arabia to reverse a series of oil production cuts. Khashoggi’s fiancee, Khatige Cengiz, and DAWN sued the crown prince, his top aides and others in federal court in Washington for their alleged role in Khashoggi’s murder. Saudi Arabia says the prince had no direct role in the killing. “It is beyond ironic that President Biden single-handedly assured MBS that he can avoid accountability when President Biden promised the American people that he would do everything in his power to hold him accountable,” said the head of DAWN, Sarah Leah Whitson, in a statement, using the prince’s initials. Biden in February 2021 had ruled out the possibility of the US government imposing punishment on Prince Mohammed himself for the murder of Khashoggi, a resident of the Washington area. Biden, speaking after authorizing the release of a declassified version of the intelligence community’s findings about Prince Mohammed’s role in the assassination, argued at the time that there was no precedent for the US to move against the leader of a strategic partner. The U.S. military has long protected Saudi Arabia from outside enemies, in exchange for Saudi Arabia keeping global oil markets afloat. “It’s impossible to read the Biden administration’s move today as anything more than a capitulation to Saudi Arabia’s pressure tactics, including cutting oil production to wring our hands to recognize MBS’s bogus immunity ploy,” Whitson said. . A federal judge in Washington has given the US government until midnight Thursday to comment on a claim by the crown prince’s lawyers that Prince Mohammed’s high official position gives him legal immunity in the case. The Biden administration also had the option not to comment in any way. Sovereign immunity, a concept rooted in international law, holds that states and their officials are protected from certain legal proceedings in the domestic courts of other foreign states. Upholding the concept of “sovereign immunity” helps ensure that American leaders in turn don’t have to worry about being taken to foreign courts to face lawsuits in other countries, the State Department said. Human rights advocates had argued that the Biden administration would encourage Prince Mohammed and other authoritarian leaders around the world to commit more rights abuses if it supported the crown prince’s claim that his high office protected him from prosecution. Prince Mohammed serves as Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in place of his aging father, King Salman. The Saudi king in September also temporarily transferred the title of prime minister – a title usually held by the Saudi monarch – to Prince Mohammed. Critics called it an attempt to bolster Muhammad’s immunity claim. —— Eric Tucker and Aamer Madhani contributed.
