"Although shocking, the announcement that the family of the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has forgiven his murderers was expected," said the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Agnes Callamard, who in a statement independent expert does not speak for the United Nations.
"The Saudi authorities are playing what they hope to be the final act of their travesty of justice (...) before an international community far too ready to be deceived," she added, believing that the leniency of the sons of the journalist was a new "act" of this travesty.
A pardon allowing the accused to escape the death penalty
As in the past, she called on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres "to act". She asked him for a "follow-up investigation" focusing on "the chain of command and associated individual responsibilities, including at the highest levels of the state."
Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi regime after being close to it, was assassinated and his body cut into pieces on October 2, 2018 at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul where he went to retrieve a document. Her children said on Friday that they were "forgiving" the murderers of their father, an announcement that should allow the accused to escape the death penalty, analysts said.
After denying the assassination, authorities in Riyadh said it was committed by Saudi agents who acted alone and without orders from senior officials.
Following an opaque trial in Saudi Arabia, five Saudis were sentenced to death and three sentenced to prison terms for the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. A total of 11 people had been charged.
"Government responsible for organization, premeditation and murder"
In late June 2019, the French expert said that she had gathered enough "credible evidence" to justify the opening of an international investigation into the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in order to establish the responsibilities of senior Saudi officials in this crime, including understood Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and asked the UN chief to trigger it.
Antonio Guterres' spokesperson replied that the secretary general did not have the power and that at least one UN member state had to request it.
Agnès Callamard then asked the courts of other countries to seize the file, in particular in Turkey and in the United States, country where the journalist worked and resided.
While Saudi Arabia holds the rotating presidency of the G20, the expert considered that a "government responsible for the organization, premeditation and murder of" a journalist "should not be rewarded by the welcome "of such a group or other similar events.