US Sanctions 16 Saudis For Participating in Khashoggi Killing - State Dept

Sputnik News

02:19 09.04.2019(updated 02:29 09.04.2019)

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US State Department in a press release said 16 Saudi individuals have been sanctioned and are banned from entering the United States due to their alleged involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo is publicly designating the following individuals for their roles in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi… those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States", the release said on Monday referring to Khashoggi's murder at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October.

The list included the following 16 names: Saud al-Qahtani; Maher Mutreb; Salah Tubaigy; Meshal Albostani; Naif Alarifi; Mohammed Alzahrani; Mansour Abahussain; Khalid Alotaibi; Abdulaziz Alhawsawi; Waleed Alsehri; Thaar Alharbi; Fahad Albalawi; Badr Alotaibi; Mustafa Almadani; Saif Alqahtani; Turki Alsehri.

The US-Saudi relationship has been under strain since Saudi operatives murdered The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the nation's consulate in Istanbul last October. US intelligence agencies have blamed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of involvement in the murder. An internal Saudi investigation led by bin Salman resulted, however, in the arrest and trial of 11 participants in the killing while absolving bin Salman of any responsibility.

Khashoggi, who was a well-known critic of Saudi policies, went missing last October after he entered the Saudi consulate in Turkey's Istanbul. Riyadh initially denied any knowledge of the journalist's whereabouts but eventually admitted that Khashoggi had been killed with a drug injection and his body had been dismembered.

The Istanbul Prosecutor's Office said the assassination of Khashoggi had been pre-planned while a UN probe concluded that Saudi government officials carried out the murder.

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