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Saudi de facto ruler approved operation that led to Khashoggi's death: U.S.

27 February 2021 08:06 (UTC +04:00)

The US intelligence community formally blamed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Friday for the grisly 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

The Director of National Intelligence's (DNI) long-sought unclassified report concluded that the Kingdom's de facto ruler "approved" the operation in Istanbul to "capture or kill" Khashoggi.

"We base this assessment on the Crown Prince's control of decisionmaking in the Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman's protective detail in the operation, and the Crown Prince's support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi," the report says, using an alternate spelling for the crown prince’s name.

"Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom's security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince's authorization," it added in an executive summary.