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US President Joe Biden said yesterday (February 24) he read the intelligence community's assessment on the culpability for the death of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
The report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is expected to be released in an unclassified form today (February 25) with the expectation that it will conclude that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Kingdom's de facto ruler, was directly responsible for Khashoggi's murder.
Earlier, CNN reported that documents filed as part of an unrelated lawsuit in Canada allege that the two private jets used by the Saudi kill team were owned by a company seized by bin Salman.
The Top Secret documents reportedly state that bin Salman ordered Sky Prime Aviation folded into Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund in 2017, the year before Khashoggi was killed.
Bin Salman controls the fund, formally known as the Public Investment Fund, as its chairperson.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines committed during her confirmation hearing to following the law by providing Congress with the report.
Biden said he would soon speak with Saudi King Salman but did not specify a date.
Khashoggi was brutally killed and likely dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in İstanbul, Turkey in October 2018, and while Saudi officials initially denied any role in his death, they later sought to pin blame on what they said was a botched rendition operation.
That explanation has been widely rejected by both the UN and a wide group of US lawmakers. The CIA reportedly concluded the month after Khashoggi was murdered that bin Salman directly ordered his killing in a report that remains classified to this day.
What happened? Journalist Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Beşiktaş, İstanbul on October 2, 2018. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia officially confirmed on October 20 that the journalist was killed inside the consulate. The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office released a press statement on October 31, giving the following information: "Jamal Khashoggi went to the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for paperwork related to his marriage on October 2, 2018. As soon as he entered the consulate building, in a premeditated murder, he was suffocated to death and his body was dismembered and destroyed." About Jamal Khashoggi
Journalist and writer. Khashoggi was known for his opposing views about the Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. He was a columnist at the Washington Post. After he expressed his criticism about the reforms introduced by bin Salman and drew reactions, he left Saudi Arabia in 2017 and moved to the US. He worked as Director-General and Editor-in-Chief at the Al Arab Media Group. He was also a media consultant at the Saudi Arabia Embassy in England. |
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(HA/VK)
