RSF files criminal complaint against Saudi crown prince in Germany
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Tuesday said it had filed a criminal complaint against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with Germany's federal public prosecutor's office. The complaint pertains to his role in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the detention of other media professionals.
The complaint, filed on Monday at one of the country's top
courts in Karlsruhe, accuses bin Salman of crimes against humanity,
additionally for the arbitrary detention of 34 journalists.
Thirty-three of the journalists listed in the 500-page
document are still currently in detention, including blogger Raif Badawi, the
creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals.
"The official opening of a criminal investigation in
Germany into the crimes against humanity in Saudi Arabia would be a world
first," said RSF Germany Director Christian Mihr in a statement. "We
ask the Public Prosecutor General to open a situation analysis, with a view to
formally launching a prosecutorial investigation and issuing arrest
warrants."
Complaint names several Saudi officials
"In Saudi Arabia, journalists, who are a civilian
population according to international law, are victims of widespread and
systematic attacks for political reasons in furtherance of a state policy aimed
at punishing or silencing them," an RSF statement said. "The five suspects
identified in the complaint are fully responsible."
The complaint identifies four primary suspects in addition
to bin Salman, including the crown prince's close adviser Saud al-Qahtani and
three other high-ranking Saudi officials.
Complaint to 'send a clear signal': RSF
RSF director of international campaigns Rebecca Vincent said
there was currently "complete impunity" for crimes against
journalists, and that the complaint aimed to establish accountability.
"If it is successful, we believe that it could be a
game changer," Vincent told DW.
"It would send a clear signal to others in Saudi Arabia
and ... in other parts of the world who have committed similar crimes against
journalists, that the world will not tolerate this, that even if they evade
justice in their own country contexts, there will be other means of achieving
accountability."
RSF cited the German Code of Crimes Against International
Law (VStGB), under which the organization says the specified journalists are
victims of multiple counts of crimes against humanity, "including willful
killing, torture, sexual violence and coercion, enforced disappearance,
unlawful deprivation of physical liberty, and persecution."
"The 35 cases detailed in the complaint reveal a system
that threatens the life and liberty of any journalist in Saudi Arabia — in
particular those who speak out publicly against the Saudi government," RSF
said.
German judiciary the 'ideal' choice
The RSF complaint comes just a week after a German court
sentenced a former Syrian secret service agent to prison, marking the first
time a court outside Syria ruled on state-sponsored torture by the regime of
Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The agent, Eyad A., was sentenced to four-and-a-half years
in prison on charges of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity. He was
arrested in 2019 in Germany. In bringing the case, German prosecutors invoked
the principle of universal jurisdiction in international law, which allows war
crimes committed by foreigners to be prosecuted in other countries.
RSF decided to file the complaint with the German judiciary,
as the advocacy organization determined that German laws give them the most
jurisdiction over crimes committed abroad.
"German courts have already shown readiness and
willingness to prosecute international criminals," the statement said.
Additionally, German officials have expressed their interest in both Khashoggi
and Badawi's cases, along with others involving press freedom.
Khashoggi, a journalist with The Washington Post and a
prominent critic of bin Salman, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul
in October 2018.
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