A senior Saudi official issued what was perceived as a death threat against the United Nations independent investigator, Agnès Callamard, after his investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In an interview with the Guardian, the outgoing special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings said that a UN colleague warned her in January 2020 that a senior Saudi official had twice threatened at a meeting with other UN senior officials in Geneva that month so that Callamard “took care of” if it was not contained by the UN.
Asked how the comment was perceived by her Geneva-based colleagues, Callamard said: “A death threat. That was how it was understood. “
Callamard, a French national and human rights expert who will take over her new role as secretary general of Amnesty International this month, was the first official to publicly investigate and publish a detailed report on the 2018 Khashoggi murder, a prominent former member who used to use his column in the Washington Post to write criticisms of the Saudi government.
Callamard’s 100-page report, published in June 2019, concluded that there was “credible evidence” that Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman and other senior Saudi officials were responsible for the murder, and called the murder of a ” international crime “. Since then, the Biden government has released its own non-confidential report, which concluded that Prince Mohammed approved the murder. The Saudi government has denied that the assassination, which took place at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, was ordered by the future king.
The Guardian independently corroborated Callamard’s account of the January 2020 episode.
The alleged threats were made, she said, at a “high-level” meeting between Saudi diplomats based in Geneva, visiting Saudi officials and UN officials in Geneva. During the exchange, Callamard was informed, they criticized his work on the murder of Khashoggi, recording his anger over his investigation and conclusions. Saudi officials also raised baseless allegations that she had received money from Qatar – a frequent refrain against critics of the Saudi government.
Callamard said that one of the main visiting Saudi officials would then have said that he had received calls from individuals who were prepared to “look after her”.
When UN officials expressed alarm, other Saudis present sought to reassure them that the comment should not be taken seriously. The Saudi group then left the room, but, as Callamard was told, the visiting senior Saudi official stayed behind and repeated the alleged threat to the other UN officials in the room.
Specifically, the visiting Saudi official said he knew people who offered to “take care of the problem, if they don’t.”
“This was reported to me at the time and it was an occasion when the United Nations was very strong on this issue. The people who were present, and also afterwards, made it clear to the Saudi delegation that this was absolutely inappropriate and that there was an expectation that this would not go ahead, ”said Callamard.
Although Callamard has discussed in the past the threats she faced in her work as a special rapporteur, including that of Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte, details of the alleged Saudi threat are being revealed in the Guardian for the first time.
The event is likely to reinforce the opinion of human rights experts that the Saudi Arabian government acted with impunity after Khashoggi’s assassination in 2018, including through arbitrary arrests of critics of the prince, as well as his potential political rivals.
The Saudi government has not responded to requests for e-mail comments, which the Guardian sent to the Saudi Foreign Ministry, the Saudi embassy in London and the Saudi embassy in Washington.
“You know, these threats don’t work for me. Well, I don’t want to ask for more threats. But I have to do what I have to do. It didn’t stop me from acting in a way that I think is the right thing to do, ”said Callamard.