Do the rich and mighty Saudis have the right to kill?

they could be made to pay for this murder most foul. Every effort is being made to absolve Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, of any accountability. This is understandable, but many believe that if the Crown Prince were to be absolved, then the right parties would not be held accountable.

After two weeks of insisting that Khashoggi had left the consulate freely within one hour after his arrival, Saudi Riyadh on two special private planes. Turkish sources claim that four of the

the Crown Prince as security detail.

Khashoggi, a former advisor to some members of the Saudi royal

Crown Prince’s crackdown on intellectuals and critics. He became a columnist on and wrote critical commentaries on the Crown Prince and how he’s running the Kingdom. On October 2, he went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to secure papers that would

was eligible to marry his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. He never came out of the consulate.

A ‘fistfight’: 1 vs 18

A story datelined Beirut has quoted a Saudi official as saying that as soon as Khashoggi saw the Saudi agents, he tried to flee, but the men stopped him, punches were thrown, Khashoggi screamed, then one of the men put him in a chokehold, and strangled him to death. If this is what the Saudi

may have to change their story. This certainly looks more of an

According to Turkish sources, the killers tried to dress up one of them to look like Khashoggi and show him, on video, leaving the consulate on his own, as the Saudis had claimed. Obviously the

not convincing enough.

After admitting the killing, the Saudi government announced

had come from Riyadh, plus one driver and two consular staff. It also announced the dismissal of one Saud al-Qahtani, a close aide to the Crown Prince, without however touching him as head of the Crown Prince’s cybersecurity organization, and Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, deputy director of Saudi intelligence, and alleged head of the entire Khashoggi operation.

But Turkish sources have expressed surprise that there has been no mention of the participation of Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, who was reportedly a part of the Crown Prince’s entourage to the

who was at the consulate before Khashoggi arrived. Mutreb reportedly called the Crown Prince’s private secretary four times from

after Khashoggi was killed.

Unanswered questions

Despite the admission of the killing, the Saudis have failed to say what they did with the body of the deceased. If Khashoggi

a fistfight, as claimed, there should have been no need to dispose of his body the way they did. There would have been no need to dismember it with a bone saw, and carried it out of the consulate in large suitcases, as Turkish authorities believe they did. Turkish investigators are now searching a forest and a farmhouse outside of Istanbul for traces of his remains.

In separate calls, King Salman and Prince Mohammed have expressed their condolences to Khashoggi’s son Salah over his father’s death. How the son took the King’s and the Crown Prince’s calls is not known; but he is said to have been barred from leaving the Kingdom at this time. This means he has no chance of living his late al-Jubeir has called the killing a

vowed to go after those responsible for what he called a “rogue

did not involve the royal government. Whatever effect this may have among the Prince’s subjects at home, it is not likely to have much value abroad.

Erdogan and Trump

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to reveal the details of the killing in their “full

Donald Trump says he would like to get to the bottom of the

apparent resolve not to sales to the Saudis.

risk an

Guterres says there is “need for a prompt, thorough and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Khashoggi’s death and full accountability for those responsi-

what exact process to use.

Some critics of Mohammed are hoping the scandal would prompt King Salman to revisit the appointment of Mohammed, and replace him with a less controversial Crown Prince. But there is no indication anything like this is going to happen. Despite growing controversy around the Crown Prince, the King has tasked him to head the committee that would restructure the kingdom’s intelligence agency. This does not indicate loss of

The popular outrage over the killing has been compared to the political turbulence that gushed out of the Arab Spring. Is there any chance this killing could in fact trigger anything like the prodemocracy upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Morocco, Yemen? There are some not-sodormant political forces in the region and beyond waiting to see something like this happen.

Disciplining the Saudis

Within the Gulf alone, where the Saudis’ word and wealth hold sway, the tiny state of Qatar, whom the Saudis initially tried to blame for the negative worldwide reaction to Khashoggi’s disappearance, may want to ask its powerful allies to consider subjecting the Kingdom to the same treatment it had accorded

in imposing a poorly contrived diplomatic blockade on the superrich state for allegedly supporting terrorism. The accusation against Qatar has never been proved, but the blockade remains.

It might be good for this monarchy to be reminded that despite all its wealth and power, it has not earned the right to kill any of its subjects who fail to lie prostrate before the King or the Crown Prince. Khashoggi was no Osama bin Laden who needed to be killed and buried in the Arabian Sea to be lost forever; he was merely an independent journalist whose view of the world was different from that of the Crown Prince.

The Saudis have been on a long

the 2002 report of the congressional Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After

linking some Saudi individuals to the

been declassified, and the people are now better informed about the

international terrorism.

It may no longer take very much for some concerned major political players to decide that the Kingdom should be punished for its role in the Khashoggi murder. This may look like a curved ball from left

- ity of the situation, no one should be surprised if it happens.