'Credible evidence' Saudi crown prince MBS directed Jamal Khashoggi killing, UN expert says

The assassins referred to Jamal Khashoggi as a "sacrificial animal" on the audio tape of the journalist's murder.

An extrajudicial executions investigator for the United Nations today recommends the UN launch an investigation into Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman's role in the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"Joints will be separated," one Saudi agent said 13 minutes before Khashoggi arrived at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he was murdered.

"First time I cut on the ground. If we take plastic bags and cut it into pieces, it will be finished."

Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, has released a 101-page report on her inquiry into Khashoggi's death, after months of investigation.

"Evidence points to the 15-person mission to execute Mr. Khashoggi requiring significant government coordination, resources and finances," writes Callamard in the report.

"While the Saudi government claims that these resources were put in place by Ahmed Asiri, every expert consulted finds it inconceivable that an operation of this scale could be implemented without the Crown Prince being aware, at a minimum, that some sort of mission of a criminal nature, directed at Mr. Khashoggi, was being launched."

From the Washington Post:

The report provided new, grisly details of Khashoggi's death that Callamard gleaned from listening to audio provided by Turkish authorities. The audio captured Saudi agents discussing the dismemberment of Khashoggi's body before he arrived at the consulate, as well as his killing, the report said.

Callamard said the culpability for Khashoggi's killing extends beyond the 11 Saudis who are on trial in a closed-door judicial proceeding in Saudi Arabia. She called it an extrajudicial killing, possibly involving torture, for which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible, and she said Saudi authorities had participated in the destruction of evidence.

Although Callamard said she found no "smoking gun" incriminating the crown prince himself, she said he had played an essential role in a campaign of repressing dissidents and almost certainly knew that a criminal mission targeting Khashoggi was being planned.

Read the rest:
U.N. investigator calls for probing Saudi officials in Khashoggi killing