U.S. Implicates Saudi Crown Prince In Khashoggi Murder

February 26, 2021 4:17 am

WASHINGTON (AP) – Saudi Arabia’s crown prince likely approved the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. That’s according to a newly declassified U.S. intelligence report released Friday. The finding could escalate pressure on the Biden administration to hold the kingdom accountable for a murder that drew widespread outrage in the U.S. and abroad. The central conclusion of the report was widely expected given that intelligence officials were said to have reached it soon after the brutal October 2018 murder of Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authoritarian consolidation of power. Still, the public blaming amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the ambitious 35-year-old crown prince.