'We don't have a history of murdering our citizens'
Alan MacKenzie
February 18, 2020
On DW's Conflict Zone, Saudi Minister of State Adel al-Jubeir says his country is paying "a great price" over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Human rights groups continue to condemn its dire treatment of activists.
Advertisement
Saudi Arabia dismisses criticism over Khashoggi murder
26:00
This browser does not support the video element.
The brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi state agents sparked international outrage, tarnishing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's global charm offensive and deterring, for a short time at least, foreign investors.
In an exclusive interview at the Munich Security Conference, the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs told Conflict Zone host Tim Sebastian, "The idea that this was authorized is ridiculous."
Adel al-Jubeir, who was demoted from foreign minister in a government reshuffle following the killing, also rejected that there had been a crackdown on dissidents and lauded the country's attractiveness to foreign business.
"If Saudi Arabia was so bad nobody would come," he said.
'Credible evidence'
On Khashoggi's murder, Sebastian asked why Turkish investigators were allowed to enter the Saudi consulate in Istanbul only 10 days after the crown prince made the offer for them to search it.
Jamal Khashoggi: A mysterious disappearance and death
Official Saudi statements on the fate of journalist Jamal Khashoggi have changed several times since he disappeared at the Istanbul consulate on October 2. DW traces the most important events in this intricate case.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Martin
Vanishes into thin air
October 2: Prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to obtain an official document for his upcoming marriage to his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. He never emerged from the building, prompting Cengiz, who waited outside, to raise the alarm.
Image: Reuters TV
Confusion over whereabouts
October 3: Turkish and Saudi officials came up with conflicting reports on Khashoggi's whereabouts. Riyadh said the journalist had left the mission shortly after his work was done. But Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the journalist was still in the consulate.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/V. Mayo
Murder claims
October 6: Turkish officials said they believed the journalist was likely killed inside the Saudi consulate. The Washington Post, for which Khashoggi wrote, cited unnamed sources to report that Turkish investigators believe a 15-member team "came from Saudi Arabia" to kill the man.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Jamali
Ankara seeks proof
October 8: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Saudi Arabia to prove that Khashoggi left its consulate in Istanbul. Turkey also sought permission to search the mission premises. US President Donald Trump voiced concern about the journalist's disappearance.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/T. Kovacs
'Davos in the Desert' hit
October 12: British billionaire Richard Branson halted talks over a $1 billion Saudi investment in his Virgin group's space ventures, citing Khashoggi's case. He also pulled out of an investment conference in Riyadh dubbed the "Davos in the Desert." His move was followed by Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi, JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon and a host of other business leaders.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Search operation
October 15: Turkish investigators searched the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The search lasted more than eight hours and investigators removed samples from the building, including soil from the consulate garden and a metal door, one official said.
Image: Reuters/M. Sezer
Death after fistfight
October 19: Saudi Arabia finally admitted that Khashoggi died at the consulate. The kingdom's public prosecutor said preliminary investigations showed the journalist was killed in a "fistfight." He added that 18 people had been detained. A Saudi Foreign Ministry official said the country is "investigating the regrettable and painful incident."
Image: Getty Images/C. McGrath
'Grave mistake'
October 21: Saudi Arabia provided yet another account of what happened to Khashoggi. The kingdom's foreign minister admitted the journalist was killed in a "rogue operation," calling it a "huge and grave mistake," but insisted that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had not been aware of the murder. Riyadh said it had no idea where Khashoggi's body was.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/C. Owen
Germany halts arms sales
October 21: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany would put arms exports to Saudi Arabia on hold for the time being, given the unexplained circumstances of Khashoggi's death. Germany is the fourth largest exporter of weapons to Saudi Arabia after the United States, Britain and France.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Sauer
Strangled to death, dissolved in acid
October 31: The Turkish prosecutor concluded that Khashoggi was strangled to death soon after entering the consulate, and was then dismembered. Another Turkish official later claimed the body was dissolved in acid. Turkish President Erdogan said the order to murder the journalist came from "the highest levels" of Saudi Arabia's government.
Image: picture-alliance/AA/M. E. Yildirim
Grilled at the UN
November 5: Saudi Arabia told the United Nations it would prosecute those responsible for Khashoggi's murder. This came as the United States and dozens of other countries raised the journalist's death before the UN Human Rights Council and called for a transparent investigation.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/F. Coffrini
Fiancee in mourning
November 8: Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, wrote on Twitter that she was "unable to express her sorrow" upon learning that the journalist's body was dissolved with chemicals. "Are these killers and those behind it human beings?" she tweeted.
Image: Reuters/Haberturk
Turkey shares audio recordings
November 10: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reveals that officials from Saudi Arabia, the US, Germany, France and Britain have listened to audio recordings related to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Presidential Press Service
Symbolic funeral prayers
November 16: A symbolic funeral prayer for Khashoggi is held in the courtyard of the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. Yasin Aktay, advisor to President Erdogan, speaks at the service.
Image: Reuters/M. Sezer
Saudi-owned villas searched
November 26: Turkish forensic police bring the investigation to the Turkish province of Yalova, where sniffer dogs and drones search two Saudi-owned villas in the village Samanli.
Image: Reuters/O . Orsal
100 days since killing
January 10: Amnesty International Turkey members demonstrate outside the Saudi Arabia Consulate in Istanbul, marking 100 day since the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. One woman holds up a street sign which reads "Jamal Khashoggi Street". The organization has called for an international investigation into the case.
Image: Reuters/M. Sezer
Saudi murder trial begins
January 3: The Khashoggi trial begins in Saudi Arabia, where state prosecutors say they will seek the death sentence for five of the eleven suspects. A request for the gathered evidence has been send to Turkish authorities. A date for the second hearing has not yet been set.
Image: picture-alliance/abaca/Depo Photos
UN inquiry team in Turkey
January 28: Agnes Callamard, who is leading the UN probe into the handling of the Khashoggi case, arrives in Ankara where she meets with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The human rights expect will stay in the country for the rest of the week to speak with prosecutors and others involved in the case.
"I understand that there are situations where countries have to agree on the mechanics and the modalities of how you want people to enter sovereign territory," al-Jubeir said.
"No country will allow another country full access to a diplomatic facility, that just doesn't happen."
The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, reported in July 2019 that there was "credible evidence pointing to the crime scenes having been thoroughly, even forensically, cleaned. These indicate that the Saudi investigation was not conducted in good faith, and that it may amount to obstructing justice."
The state minister told Sebastian that the special rapporteur had "relied on sources from the newspapers and on leaks to the media" and was biased.
"Look at her record when it comes to Saudi Arabia for a number of years," said al-Jubeir, "and how disparaging and how negative she has been against Saudi Arabia."
Al-Jubeir also pushed back at Sebastian's challenge that there were many others besides Ms Callamard who were disparaging about human rights in Saudi Arabia.
"Saudi Arabia’s made great progress in terms of human rights," he said.
On the wrong side of human rights?
But human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, see it differently.
"Virtually all Saudi Arabian human rights defenders and independent voices, male and female, are behind bars serving lengthy sentences," it said in a report this month.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "is the driving force behind change in Saudi Arabia," said al-Jubeir, but questions linger around his connection to Jamal Khashoggi's murderImage: imago images/Future Image
"I take issue with that. The country is on a major path to reform and anybody who calls for reform is part of that process," al-Jubeir said. "Why would we have reforms in Saudi Arabia and then criticize people who call for reform?"
The minister of state said Saudi Arabia faced "hypocrisy" over the criticism levelled at it over human rights.
Friends like these
At a meeting in January with al-Jubeir, members of the European Parliament were also critical of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
"You have one of the worst records in the world, and if we are to treat you as an ally and a friend, then that has to change," one British MEP told the Saudi official.
On Conflict Zone, Tim Sebastian raised the meeting with al-Jubeir and his response to MEPs that Riyadh "refuses to be patronized."
"Saudi Arabia does not accept people criticizing our legal system. We have not criticized the UK or France or Germany or Sweden," the minister of state said.
