Fri 11 Oct 2019, 09:55 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER by Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour Party member
Panorama reporter, Jane Corbin investigates the death of a Saudi Arabian journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. A vocal critic of the Saudi leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, he worked for the Washington Post. He had fled to Turkey and planned to remarry a Turkish teacher. In order to do this, he was required to supply divorce papers from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Both his girlfriend and CCTV evidenced him entering the embassy. No one has seen him since and evidence suggest that he was murdered by Saudi authorities.
The evidence comes from Turkish intelligence, who were bugging the embassy and recorded tapes of the conversations between Khashoggi and staff at the consulate. Corbin interviews both Agnes Carllamard, a UN special Rapporteur, and a human rights expert, and Helena Kennedy, a British barrister. Both have listened to the tapes and have concluded that this was state murder.
The story begins with Khashoggi requesting paperwork and the staff telling him to come back in a few days. Staff telephoned the Crown Prince’s office and members of the Saudi intelligence, plus a forensic pathologist were flown in. When Khashoggi returned, the tapes suggested that he was suffocated and his body was dismembered. His body parts were removed from the building and his remains have never been found.
Initially, the Saudi authorities denied all knowledge of his whereabouts. Then they claimed that he had been murdered, but not on the orders of the Crown Prince. The evidence suggest that this was not some out of control maverick operation, but well planned and ordered by the very top of the Saudi Regime. Panorama requested an interview with the Saudis, but was refused.
Ironically, the ‘Crown Prince’ was hailed as a reformer. The fiefdom of the house of Saud has a long history of barbarous conduct. Helena Kennedy believed that there should be a judicial enquiry into Khashoggi’s death. However, Corbin suggests that there appears no political will to hold those responsible to account. I would argue that it’s not a question of political will but material interest that are at stake.
The leaders of the so-called free world turn a blind eye to the Saudi Regime because it’s the largest producer of oil and a counterweight to the Iranian regime. Their silence is in marked contrast to other states that have sponsored murders on foreign territory, It’s also one of a number of reasons why the establishment fear Jeremy Corbyn, who has a long history in calling out human rights abuses.
