Many invitations were made by Khadija Genghis, the fiancée of the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, to urge the English Premier League to not complete the acquisition of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for Newcastle United for 336 million euros.
In a letter seen by the British newspaper "The Telegraph", Prime Minister Richard Masters responded, stressing that Genghis' invitations would be taken "fully into account" expressing his sympathy for her case.
In a letter to Genghis' lawyer, Masters added that he is "very sympathetic" to his client, but he will not meet her because the rules do not allow this.
"I cannot provide you with any additional information because our operations are confidential and very private, and they will remain so, and for this reason I will not be able to meet with your client, but I confirm that her invitations are taken fully into account in our evaluation," he said.
It is the first time that the Premier League has revealed that he is considering allegations of human rights violations as part of a routine examination he is conducting for owners and managers before agreeing to an offer to sell a Premier League club.
The lawyer for Genghis - who warned for the first time last April about the dangers of allowing a Gulf sovereign fund to buy the club and that it would be a "great stigma" affecting the reputation of the richest league in the world and Britain as a whole - had contacted Masters twice asking him to meet his client "as soon as possible" .
Khashoggi’s previous fiancée, Bin Salman - whom the United Nations and US intelligence considered directly involved in the killing of the Saudi journalist at his country's consulate in Istanbul in 2018 - was accused of "using sport in a strategic way to restore his severely damaged image."
After Genghis’s speech, her lawyer and Masters exchanged the letters, one of which was the opinion of a former director of the committee “Examining the managing owners” in which he said, “The rules clearly will not allow Mohamed bin Salman and the Saudi Investment Authority to buy the club at 300 million pounds, in light of the credible evidence available about his involvement in the killing Khashoggi.
Commenting on the Masters message, Khashoggi’s fiancée said yesterday that she was “confident that the Premier League will follow the rules that he set, especially regarding the examination of owners and managers, and will cancel the Newcastle acquisition by Bin Salman and the Saudi investment fund.”
"Until bin Salman is held accountable for his role in the murder of Jamal, the organization (the Premier League) must not do anything with him," Genghis added.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied the involvement of its crown prince in this case, but the acquisition deal has been subjected to several strikes, including Riyadh's accusations of piracy of premier league matches.
Earlier last month, it was revealed that the World Trade Organization will issue a report condemning Saudi Arabia of being involved in piracy broadcasting major sporting events. The newspaper said that the final report of the WTO - located on 130 pages - will be officially released in the middle of this month, and includes a clear condemnation of Saudi Arabia by being behind the pirate network "B out Q".