The Khashoggi killing: impunity is the norm

The macabre murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, as ordered by Saudi Heir Apparent Mohamed bin Salman (MBS), most probably with the connivance of Saudi friends such Zionist premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Jared Kushner, the Jewish son-in-law of US president Donald Trump (also a firm Saudi ally), has caught Saudi Arabia on the wrong foot and exposed it as the fountain head of terrorism.

Now we have an article by Leon Willems, Director of Free Press Unlimited for Project Syndicate, titled: “The Khashoggi killing: impunity is the norm”.

The details of the brutal, premeditated murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi are astonishing. For starters, there is the location: not some dark alley but inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul. Next, there are the alleged perpetrators: a 15-member team that included a forensic doctor who once worked in Australia and brought a bone saw, and a body double who put on Khashoggi’s clothes – probably while they were still warm – and casually slipped out the back door.

But the most shocking revelation may be this: The Saudis knew they could get away with murder.

Recent figures published by UNESCO, the United Nations organization that is tasked, in part, with promoting the safety of journalists worldwide, show that in nine of 10 cases, perpetrators are never punished for murdering a journalist. Because impunity is the norm, Saudi authorities took the gamble that even if the killing came to light, the consequences would be minor. And they were right: Although prosecutors in Saudi Arabia are seeking the death penalty for five of the suspects, the international response has so far been meek.

Despite the global attention the murder has received, most leaders have only promised to “consider” sanctions against Saudi Arabia; others have dismissed the idea outright. US President Donald Trump, for example, has said that although the official Saudi explanation is unsatisfactory, he has no intention of responding by curbing arms sales or trade. Leaders in France and Spain have expressed similar sentiments.

Such bluntness illustrates that when economic interests are pitted against human rights, the former always take precedence. It is not only the loss of a journalist’s life that needs to be mourned, but also the erosion of civil liberties and free speech – especially in the West Asia and North Africa region.

As the Committee to Protect Journalists reported last month, three of Saudi Arabia’s closest regional allies – the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain – issued statements supporting Riyadh roguish response to the Khashoggi killing.

Saudi-owned domestic and pan-Arab media toed the line too, while an army of online trolls quickly set to work to defend the Saudi rulers and smear its critics.

This type of whitewash is not limited to the Khashoggi case; it is even harder to find serious criticism in mainstream Arab media of the Saudi-led war in Yemen. With tens of thousands dead and a devastating famine threatening to kill millions more, the region’s news outlets are virtually silent on the role of Saudi Arabia’s interventionist Heir Apparent, Mohamed bin Salman – or more properly MBS.

If the international community genuinely cares about defending human rights, the rule of law and democratic values, it must denounce Saudi Arabia’s brutality. One of West Asia’s most powerful countries is directly responsible for widespread death, destruction and misery. And yet Western countries are not only condoning these activities; in some cases, they are actively facilitating them by supplying the weapons.

Whose interests are really served when Saudi Arabia is a strategic ally of the West? It is certainly not the marginalized people of Yemen, Bahrain and Syria. Nor is it anyone concerned with human rights, gender equality, and many other values Western leaders claim to uphold.

It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of journalists like Khashoggi to a country like Saudi Arabia. Without these purveyors of truth, institutional and political corruption would never be challenged. That is why Saudi officials’ extrajudicial killing of a journalist overseas must not go unpunished; governments must urgently reconsider their alliance with the kingdom – created by Britain in 1932 for its agent, the desert brigand of Najd, Abdul-Aziz Aal-e Saud.

Therefore simply condemning human-rights violations without applying meaningful sanctions will not change its behavior.

Beyond that the international community must stop delegating the responsibility to investigate and prosecute the murder of journalists to the regimes that wanted them dead. In most instances, the rule of law is too weak, and the very people in charge are those who ordered the executions.

Justice may never be served in Khashoggi’s case, but his murder must not be in vain. Governments that value transparency and free speech must work together to create an international tribunal to prosecute cases of slain journalists in countries unable or unwilling to do so themselves. The alternative – allowing impunity to prevail – will let criminals off the hook and erode the very values that journalism is meant to defend.