The United Nations (UN) said that a rapporteur for human rights would investigate the case of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul in October.
Agnes Callamard, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said she would travel to Turkey coming week to head an “independent international inquiry’’ into Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
“This is not a UN investigation,” he said, adding Callamard’s role involved presenting reports to the UN Commission on Human Rights.
Recently, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he does not have the authority to decide himself to launch an investigation into the death of Khashoggi and no country had submitted an official request to launch a criminal investigation.
Saudi Arabia insisted that the death of Khashoggi, a Saudi national and vocal critic of the country’s crown prince, was a “rogue operation’’ carried out without the knowledge of the crown prince.
Saudi Arabia has put 11 defendants on trial for the crime.
However, the international community has questioned the credibility of Riyadh’s investigation.
Meanwhile, some have speculated that those indicted are such high-level figures that they must have been working on the orders of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.