BICOM

The Trump administration yesterday announced sanctions against 17 high ranking Saudi officials implicated in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Included in the list is Saud al-Qahtani, one of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s top advisors, who is rumoured to have managed the operation to kill Khashoggi. Al-Qahtani said he left Istanbul hours before the murder.

The US sanctions were issued under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which was triggered last month by a bipartisan group of Senators. The Act enables the US Government to target perpetrators of human rights violations with sanctions. The US Treasury Department designated the officials for “serious human rights abuses”. The sanctions freeze all US assets and prevent US citizens from engaging in business with them.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said: “The Saudi officials we are sanctioning were involved in the abhorrent killing of Jamal Khashoggi. These individuals who targeted and brutally killed a journalist who resided and worked in the United States must face consequences for their actions.”

The bipartisan group of US senators also introduced new legislation to take further action against Saudi Arabia over the death of Khashoggi and its role in the war in Yemen. If the bill were to become law, it would suspend weapon sales to Saudi Arabia and prohibit US refuelling of Saudi coalition aircraft. Members of Congress have argued that the Crown Prince must have known about the operation to kill Khashoggi, but the Trump administration is withholding this information.

In a television interview, the Saudi prosecutor in the Khashoggi case, Saud Al-Mojeb, said that he had arrested 21 suspects and 11 have been charged with murder. He said he  would seek the death penalty for the five people that “ordered and executed the crime.” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Saudi prosecutor’s statement was “unsatisfactory,” repeating a previous request that the suspects be prosecuted in Turkey under Turkish law.