United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday urged the governments of Saudi Arabia and Turkey to reveal the details of the disappearance and possible extra-judicial killing of the prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In a statement released by United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), Bachelet said, "In view of the seriousness of the situation surrounding the disappearance of Khashoggi, I believe the inviolability or immunity of the relevant premises and officials bestowed by treaties such as the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations should be waived immediately."
"Under international law, both a forced disappearance and an extra-judicial killing are very serious crimes, and immunity should not be used to impede investigations into what happened and who is responsible. Two weeks is a very long time for the probable scene of a crime not to have been subjected to a full forensic investigation," she added.
After two weeks of Khashoggi's disappearance, Bachelet reiterated that it is clear that the journalist entered the Saudi consulate and has not been seen since.
The High Commissioner also underscored that both Saudi Arabia and Turkey are parties to the UN Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and, therefore, they are obliged to take all measures to prevent torture, enforced disappearances and other serious human rights violations, to investigate allegations of acts constituting these crimes, and to bring to justice those suspected of committing them.
United States Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo on Tuesday met Saudi King Salman and Foreign Minister Al-Jubeir in Riyadh to discuss the disappearance of journalist Khashoggi and it was agreed that there is a need for a thorough, transparent, and timely investigation in the case.
Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post, disappeared on October 2 after entering the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. While his fiancee claimed Khashoggi never stepped out of the embassy after entering it, Turkish authorities reportedly claimed to have evidence that suggests that Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate, an allegation that Saudi Arabia has strongly denied.
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