Callamard reveals that she was threatened with death by a Saudi official in connection with her investigation into Khashoggi’s murder

Geneva (ST): The UN rapporteur, Agnes Callamard, revealed that she was twice threatened with death by an official in the Saudi regime against the background of her investigation into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

According to what Callamard revealed to the British newspaper “The Guardian” in an interview published yesterday, “Colleagues at the United Nations informed her in January 2020 that a Saudi official threatened to ‘deal with her’ , which she said was an implicit threat, and she and others understood that it was a threat to her life.”

Callamard added that her colleagues witnessed the threats against her during a high-level meeting with Saudi diplomats residing in the Swiss city of Geneva and officials from the Kingdom who were visiting the city and understood the threats as death threats.

She went on to say that  Saudi officials claimed that she was receiving money from Qatar and strongly criticized her report on the killing.

Callamard, the former rapporteur on extrajudicial and arbitrary killings, published a nearly 100-page report in June 2019 that concluded that there was “credible evidence” that the Crown Prince of the Saudi regime, Mohammed bin Salman, and other Saudi officials were responsible for Khashoggi’s killing.

In turn, the UN rapporteur’s office confirmed to the US news network CNN that Callamard’s statements about her receiving a death threat from a high-ranking Saudi official were correct, and that the Saudi side did not respond to the network’s request for comment.

On the 26th of last month, the administration of US President Joe Biden revealed a declassified copy of a US intelligence report on Khashoggi’s murder, which stated, “We believe that the Saudi crown prince approved in 2018 an operation in Istanbul to arrest or kill Khashoggi.”

K.Q.