Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman takes ‘full responsibility’ for murder of Jamal Khashoggi but denies ordering the killing
- In an interview airing on Sunday, the crown prince maintains that the murder was a ‘heinous crime’ and a ‘mistake’ by Saudi agents
- The grisly episode cast an unforgiving light on the country’s human rights policies and its complicated relationship with the US
But he denied ordering the slaying, despite a CIA assessment that found that Mohammed probably authorised it.
“If there is any such information that charges me, I hope it is brought forward publicly,” he told interviewer Norah O’Donnell, according to a transcript of the episode to air on Sunday evening.
The comments by Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s day-to-day ruler, came days before the anniversary of Khashoggi’s death and as the Saudi leadership is struggling to turn the page on a grisly episode that cast an unforgiving light on Mohammed’s human rights policies and Saudi Arabia’s complicated relationship with the United States.
The crown prince made similar statements about accepting responsibility to PBS’s Frontline, which released a lengthy documentary about Mohammed online on Saturday. In the interview with Martin Smith, he denied any prior knowledge of the killing.
Khashoggi, who wrote columns criticising the crown prince’s policies in The Washington Post, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, by agents dispatched from the kingdom. Saudi prosecutors later said two of the crown prince’s most trusted aides had been involved in the planning of what was portrayed as a botched attempt to bring Khashoggi back alive to the kingdom.