U.N. expert wants probe of prince in Khashoggi death

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A United Nations expert assigned to investigate the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi government agents has recommended probing the possible role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a conclusion that could complicate the kingdom’s efforts to smooth over ties with Western allies.

Agnes Callamard, an expert on extrajudicial executions at the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said she found no “smoking gun” and that “no conclusion is made as to guilt.” But in a report running about 100 pages, she revealed disturbing new details from audio recordings of the murder and maintained there was “credible evidence, warranting further investigation of high-level Saudi officials’ individual liability, including the crown prince’s.”

She asserted Prince Mohammed played a key role in a campaign of repressing dissidents and political opponents, and said that “every expert consulted finds it inconceivable that an operation of this scale could be implemented without the Crown Prince being aware, at a minimum, that some sort of mission of a criminal nature, directed at Mr. Khashoggi, was being launched.”

Khashoggi, 59, was a Saudi journalist and former government insider who left to the U.S. in 2017 to live in self-imposed exile. The same year, he began writing a column in The Washington Post that was often highly critical of the kingdom’s new government and its young crown prince.