Philip Hensmans of Al-Jazeera Net: interests and "geopolitical" prevent justice in the file Khashoggi

Hisham Abu Mariam-Brussels

Amnesty International's Director General in Belgium Philip Hensmans said economic interests, as well as the geopolitical importance of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, are the reason why Western countries, led by the United States and the European Union, have been reluctant to press the Saudi regime to try the perpetrators of the murder Khashoggi.

Hensmans considered that major countries in the Security Council - led by the United States and France - prevent the internationalization of the file, and will not hesitate to use the veto to abort the move. Despite the Western support of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, European countries, including Belgium, have not hesitated to denounce the gross violations of freedoms and human rights in Saudi Arabia, which forced the regime to take a series of unprecedented measures and reforms in the field of human rights.

Has the United States and European countries aborted efforts to prosecute the Saudi regime and not implicate the Saudi Crown Prince in the assassination?

I can not say for sure that there is an intent to grave this issue by Western governments, but there is certainly a mix of interests, including economic interests and geopolitical issues in the region, which played a major role in the way the West dealt with this issue, by not being exposed to Saudi Arabia and claim To try the real perpetrators, and only to condemn and condemn.

It should be noted that several European countries not only condemned, but took concrete measures, including Germany, which decided to stop exporting arms to Saudi Arabia after the assassination of Khashoggi.

Several European countries, including Belgium, have taken a clear position on human rights violations and the absence of democracy in Saudi Arabia. The US position is clearly defended by Saudi Arabia because of bilateral relations and interests between Washington and Riyadh.

Despite the Western support of the Saudi regime, I believe that there is international pressure on it, which led Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to take a series of unprecedented human rights reforms, even if on the face of superficiality and received resistance by the religious trend Conservative in the country.

- Is there pressure in the United Nations papers by the United States and some European countries to not internationalize the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi?

There is no doubt that there is strong international pressure in the corridors of the United Nations to prevent the internationalization of the Khashoggi case.

In order to internationalize the file, the UN Secretary General needs the green light from the Security Council, of which the United States is a permanent member. Therefore, any attempt to internationalize the file will not only clash with the US veto, but it is very likely that other permanent members such as China, Russia, and possibly France, will veto it, because these countries usually oppose this kind of decision.

Did you, as an international organization, ask the United Nations to participate in the investigations to find out the truth in Khashoggi's dossier?

We do not participate in any formal criminal investigations by the United Nations. Our participation is to inform and inform the Organization of the documents and reports we have obtained.

This type of criminal investigation requires substantial human and material resources that we do not have, and access to the defendants and documents is difficult for a country like Saudi Arabia, so we support and rely on the investigations of private investigator Anias Kalamar.

For our organization, we carried out activities on the first anniversary of the assassination of Khashoggi in order to enlighten public opinion in this dossier, in order to demand a real trial for the perpetrators, and to highlight the reality and absence of human rights in Saudi Arabia.

We will continue to demand justice for Khashoggi's dossier and to punish the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Certainly, the Saudi crown prince bears responsibility for Khashoggi's murder, so the truth must reveal his role in the assassination.

- Do you think that Mohammed bin Salman will one day appear before the international courts, especially after he admitted to taking political responsibility in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi?

I think this hypothesis is unlikely, first because Saudi Arabia has not signed the ICC accession charter, and secondly because the Security Council must vote on a resolution to try Saudi Arabia before the ICC.

As I said earlier, the Trump administration will block any decision that would harm the strategic relations between Washington and Riyadh.

I believe that the West has strong economic interests including arms deals, oil and contracts with Western companies through the liberal reforms Mohammed bin Salman seeks to implement in order to diversify the country's resources in various fields, and therefore the Western pressure on Saudi Arabia remains weak because it does not want to conflict with its interests In this volatile region of the world, which is strategic in terms of global oil market supplies.

If we look at the vote of the UN Human Rights Council, we will note that Saudi Arabia is not only supported by European countries and the United States, but there are other countries in the world that support the Saudi regime, which has succeeded in forging strong relations with them using economic or sometimes spiritual, such as Pakistan.

[Asharq Al-Awsat] What is your position on a number of European countries and the United States continuing to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia, even after the assassination of Khashoggi, and their involvement in the commission of horrific crimes in Yemen, described by several UN reports as amounting to war crimes?

It is reprehensible and strongly deploring. Arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE must be stopped because they are involved in gross human rights violations in Yemen and are involved in massacres and killings of civilians. We do not forget that serious human rights violations in Yemen are not limited to the Saudi-led coalition countries, but all parties to the conflict are also involved, including the Iranian-backed Houthi group.

The political aspect must be separated from the legal aspect of the arms sale. As some countries, such as Britain, while supporting and continuing to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, the British judiciary has stopped this type of deal. The same is true in Belgium. The courts have ordered a cessation of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and EU states must be at the heart of one man and stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE until the war is over, abuses cease and unarmed civilians are targeted.

- Can you bring lawsuits in Europe against some European countries that continue to sell arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE?

Countries that continue to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, such as France and the United States, also bear political, criminal and moral responsibility for using these weapons to commit egregious human rights violations in Yemen. Weapons for Saudi Arabia. The same is true in Britain, whose courts have suspended arms sales licenses to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for fear of being used against civilians in Yemen.

- What do you think of the decision of some European Union countries to tighten the file of political asylum, even for citizens coming from areas of war and armed conflict?

The position of our organization is clear in this file, and we deplore all the political decisions of all European and non-European governments that do not respect this human right guaranteed by international conventions and treaties. There is a far-right populist tide in a number of European countries, and the issue of immigration and refugees is being used as a scapegoat because these parties are unable to provide viable solutions to all the social and economic problems in which these countries are stumbling.

- What is your position on the decision of some regions in Belgium to ban halal slaughter in the Islamic way?

This decision was caused by the convergence of interests between animal rights groups and the "vegetarians" movement, and a far-right anti-Muslim rhetoric in Belgium. It should be remembered that the decision is aimed at the Muslim and Jewish communities in Belgium, and we in the organization deplore all forms of hate speech against Muslims and Jews alike.