Joe Biden Recommending Immunity for Mohammed Bin Salman Sparks Outrage – By Darragh Roche (Newsweek) / Nov 18, 2022
The Biden administration has caused outrage after it determined that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has immunity from a lawsuit regarding the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Department of Justice said in a court filing that bin Salman’s new role as prime minister of Saudi Arabia means he has immunity from a civil suit about the 2018 killing that took place in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.
“The United States government has expressed grave concerns regarding Jamal Khashoggi’s horrific killing and has raised these concerns publicly and with the most senior levels of the Saudi government,” the filing said.
“However, the doctrine of head of state immunity is well established in customary international law and has been consistently recognized in longstanding executive branch practice as a status-based determination that does not reflect a judgment on the underlying conduct at issue in the litigation,” the Justice Department wrote.
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