January 19, 2019•Update: January 20, 2019
By Ahmet Salih Alacaci
ANKARA
In an article published by CNN on Saturday, two activists for human rights and press freedoms called on Washington to release information on its possible prior knowledge of the killing last October of a Saudi journalist in Istanbul.
Human rights and civil liberties attorney Jameel Jaffar and Joel Simon called for Congress and the judiciary to demand the Trump administration clarify “what, if anything” it knew about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, what has been learned so far, and whether the White House is “acting in concert with the Saudi regime to protect the perpetrators.”
Noting that various human rights and press freedom organizations had previously requested Turkey press the UN to “conduct a full investigation into the killing”, they underlined current efforts and legal measures to compel the administration to shed light on the incident.
One of these is a lawsuit filed by the Columbia University Knight First Amendment Institute and the Committee to Protect Journalists where Jaffar and Simon are respectively directors, requesting a federal court to require the administration reveal intelligence files on the killing.
Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post, went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
After producing various contradictory explanations, Riyadh acknowledged he was killed inside the consulate building, blaming the act on a botched rendition operation.
Turkey has sought the extradition of the Saudi citizens involved in the killing as well as a fuller accounting of the killing from Riyadh.
