US SANCTIONS 17 SAUDI EXECS OVER JOURNO’S SLAY
The order blocks access to financial system, freezes assets of suspects in Khashoggi killing
The United States imposed economic sanctions on 17 Saudi officials on Thursday for their role in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The US Treasury Department sanctions were the first concrete response by the Trump administration to Khashoggi’s death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
Top officials
Among those sanctioned were Saud al-Qahtani, a top aide to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as the Saudi Consul General Mohammad al-Otaibi and members of a 15-person team Turkey has identified as being involved.
The measure was unusual for Washington, which rarely imposes sanctions on Saudi nationals. The sanctions do not target the Riyadh government, an important US security and economic ally.
It also allows the administration to stop short of action that might affect lucrative US arms deals with Saudi Arabia that President Donald Trump has vowed to preserve.
The sanctions limit access to the US financial system and freeze people’s assets and will be implemented under a law which targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuses and corruption.
“These individuals who targeted and brutally killed a journalist who resided and worked in the United States must face consequences for their actions,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said.
Death sentence
Khashoggi, a royal insider turned critic of Saudi policy, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
He was a US resident and columnist for The Washington Post and his killing has provoked a political crisis in Saudi Arabia as well as friction with Western allies.
Some members of the US Congress said that even with the sanctions the administration has not been tough enough, specifically in regard to the Saudi crown prince.
Later on Thursday, senators introduced legislation that, if it became law, would suspend weapon sales to Saudi Arabia as punishment for Khashoggi’s death and the Yemen civil war.
Riyadh initially denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s disappearance, then offered contradictory explanations including that he was killed in a rogue operation.
Saudi deputy public prosecutor and spokesperson Shalaan alShalaan said on Thursday Khashoggi died by lethal injection after a struggle.
Without naming them, Shalaan said the Saudi prosecutor had requested the death penalty for five people “charged with ordering and committing the crime, and for the appropriate sentences for the other indicted individuals.”
11 suspects indicted
He said 11 of 21 suspects have been indicted and will be referred to court.
Shalaan said Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, knew nothing of the operation, in which Khashoggi’s body was dismembered, removed from the building and handed over to an unidentified “local cooperator.”
Shalaan said Khashoggi was murdered after “negotiations” for his return failed.
Other targets
Among others cited in Thursday’s US Treasury announcement are General Maher Mutreb, an aide to Qahtani who has appeared in photographs with Prince Mohammed.
Absent from the sanctions list were four officials fired last month along with Qahtani: General Ahmed al-Asiri, the deputy head of foreign intelligence, and three other intelligence deputies—General Rashad bin Hamed al-Hamadi, General Abdullah bin Khaleef al-Shaya, and General Mohammed Saleh alRamih.