Saudi Arabia rejects all false claims in the Human Rights’ council on the killing of Khashoggi

Saudi Arabia rejects all false claims in the Human Rights’ council on the killing of Khashoggi
Saudi Arabia rejects all false claims in the Human Rights’ council on the killing of Khashoggi

In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency, His Excellency Mr. Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and member of the Council of Ministers, said that the murder of citizen Jamal Khashoggi – may he rest in peace – was a deplorable and grievous crime which could in no way be disregarded or condoned.

As hadalready been announced, the Kingdom had taken the requisite steps to bring theperpetrators of that crime to justice, in accordance with the laws in force inits territory, after they violated, by their act, all the regulations and thepowers vested in them.

With regardto the report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council, he saidthat, regrettably, Ms. Callamard's report was full of unfounded allegationsincluding, inter alia, the violation of a number of international conventionsand a totally unacceptable impeachment of the Kingdom's leadership.

The Ministerof State for Foreign Affairs went on to say that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,while reaffirming its sincere commitment to, and respect for, internationallaws and conventions and its rejection of all the abusive and false allegationscontained in the report, retained its right to take legal action in responsethereto.

Regardingthe impartiality and credibility of the report, Minister Al-Jubeir indicatedthat there were valid grounds to affirm the biased and non-objective nature ofthe Special Rapporteur's report, of the Special Rapporteur herself and of thefindings and conclusions that she reached.

The SpecialRapporteur had based her report on press and media reports and had relied onthe analyses and deductions of unnamed experts in order to reach a number offundamental conclusions in her report, in which she also made use ofexpressions, descriptions and allegations that had previously been used byparties opposed to the Kingdom for political, ideological and historicalreasons and which had been adopted by biased bodies seeking to detract from theKingdom and its leadership.

Needless tosay, all this clearly showed that the report lacked impartiality, credibilityand the reliability that should have been an important factor in itspreparation even if, as in the case of this report, it was not an official orbinding report of the United Nations.

HisExcellency added that the Special Rapporteur had disregarded the previouslyannounced endeavours that the Kingdom's competent agencies made to investigateand prosecute the perpetrators of the crime.

She shouldhave referred to those endeavours and should have shown due respect for theongoing investigations and the judicial measures taken in this case within theKingdom since they involved the sovereignty of the Kingdom and its judicialinstitutions, any violation of which was totally unacceptable.

He also saidthat, for unknown reasons, the report denigrated the publicly announcedmeasures that the Kingdom had taken to restructure its Presidency of GeneralIntelligence.

Regardingthe competence of the Special Rapporteur, the Minister of State for ForeignAffairs said that the false allegations and accusations made in the report gavecause to believe that they were grounded in Ms. Callamard's preconceived ideasand attitudes concerning the Kingdom.

This beliefwas further substantiated by the fact that, from the first days after themurder, Ms. Callamard made intentional but totally unfounded accusationsagainst the Kingdom.

She began,on the third day after the distressing event, by sending tweets accusing theKingdom of being responsible for the murder and covering up the crime.

She had alsodescribed the statement of the Saudi Attorney General as unacceptable and hadquestioned the probity of the investigations in total disregard for the code ofconduct under which she had an obligation to conduct a professional andimpartial assessment of the facts.

This raisedimportant questions concerning the extent of Ms. Callamard's competence topresent an objective and impartial report on this case.

HisExcellency Adel Al-Jubeir added that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was seeking toensure that this case was addressed in a manner totally devoid of any politicizationor mediatization that would be prejudicial to the course of the judicialproceedings in the Kingdom and therefore, in pursuit of its policy ofcooperation with the international human rights mechanisms in conformity withthe relevant internationally recognized principles and practices, on 3 June2019 it had provided Ms. Michelle Bachelet, the High Commissioner for HumanRights, with a detailed interim report thereon.

MinisterAl-Jubeir concluded his statement by emphasizing that the Kingdom would neveraccept any attempt whatsoever to encroach on its sovereignty; it categoricallyrejected any attempt to influence or divert this case from its course in theKingdom's judicial system and would never accept any attempt to prejudice orrun down the Kingdom's leadership or interfere in the work of its independentjudicial institutions.

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