The Guardian reported on Tuesday that the Saudi officials have twice issued death threats to the United Nations special rapporteur Agnes Callamard over her role in the investigation of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In an interview with the Guardian, Callamard revealed that a UN colleague had informed her in January 2020 that a senior Saudi official had threatened her other colleagues at the UN that month that she will be “taken care of” if she is not withdrawn from the investigation. The rapporteur said that her colleagues had perceived that comment as a “death threat. That was how it was understood.”
Callamard, a French national and a human rights expert, published a 100-page report in June 2019 over Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, arguing that there is “credible evidence” that Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman and other senior officials of the Saudi administration were responsible for Khashoggi’s murder in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2018.
The Biden administration has since released its own declassified report which concluded that the Saudi crown prince approved the murder. Saudi officials have denied the conclusions, saying that Muhammad Bin Salman had no hand in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.
Callamard, who will soon take on her new post as the secretary-general of Amnesty International, said that the life threats were made during a “high-level” meeting with the Geneva-based Saudi diplomats, visiting Saudi officials and her colleagues in Geneva. Callamard was told that the Saudi officials criticized her investigation on Khashoggi’s murder and denied the conclusions she had drawn. They also accused her of receiving money from Qatar.
Callamard was told that one of the visiting Saudi officials said that he has connections with people who are prepared to “take care of her.” Hearing this, the UN officials expressed alarm to which the other Saudi officials said that the comments are not to be taken seriously. The Saudi team left the room, but the visiting official remained behind and reiterated the threat.
“It was reported to me at the time and it was one occasion where the United Nations was actually very strong on that issue. People that were present, and also subsequently, made it clear to the Saudi delegation that this was absolutely inappropriate and that there was an expectation that this should not go further,” Callamard told the Guardian.
Callamard said that such threats are futile – she will continue to act in the way which she thinks is right. “You know, those threats don’t work on me. Well, I don’t want to call for more threats. But I have to do what I have to do. It didn’t stop me from acting in a way which I think is the right thing to do.”