Help promote human rights in the Middle East and North Africa

Donate Today
Facebook-f Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube Envelope
Search
Close
  • English
  • العربية
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Advocacy
    • DAWN's Advocacy
    • The Lobbyist Hall of Shame
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
    • Reforming Foreign Policy
      • Aid Conditionality
      • Human Rights Go to War
    • US Foreign Policy in MENA
    • Joint Advocacy
  • Experts
  • Latest
Menu
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • FAQs
    • Support Dawn
    • Work With Us
    • For the Media
  • Founder Jamal Khashoggi
    • Who Was Jamal Khashoggi?
    • Chronology of a Murder
    • UN Recommendations
    • International Reaction
    • In His Own Words
    • DAWN and Jamal
  • Countries
    • Saudi Arabia
    • Egypt
    • UAE
    • Israel-Palestine
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
  • Democracy In Exile
    • About
    • Submission Guidelines for Democracy in Exile
  • Advocacy
    • DAWN's Advocacy
    • The Lobbyist Hall of Shame
    • DAWN's Culprits Gallery
    • Reforming Foreign Policy
      • Aid Conditionality
      • Human Rights Go to War
    • US Foreign Policy in MENA
    • Joint Advocacy
  • Experts
  • Latest
Donate

United States: Biden Administration Recognition of Saudi Crown Prince Immunity is Bad Policy and Bad Law

November 17, 2022
in DAWN, Feature, Press Release Saudi Arabia, Press Releases, Saudi Arabia, US - Saudi Arabia
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Decision to Grant Immunity Undermines Only Action for Accountability for Murder of Jamal Khashoggi

(Washington D.C., November 17): The Biden administration's recognition of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman's (MBS) status as head of government in Saudi Arabia suggesting his immunity from prosecution in the lawsuit against him for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is a mistake as a matter of law and policy, said Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

The organization's lawsuit in federal district court, together with Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi's widow, seeks to hold MBS and 20 co-defendants liable for the murder under federal and state laws.

"The Biden administration's decision to suggest immunity for MBS in our lawsuit was an unnecessary, elective action that will serve only to undermine the most important action for accountability for Khashoggi's heinous murder," said Sarah Leah Whitson. "It's beyond ironic that President Biden has single-handedly assured MBS can escape accountability when it was President Biden who promised the American people he would do everything to hold him accountable. Not even the Trump administration did this."

The Biden administration filed its suggestion of immunity with the court today, which is traditionally determinative on the court. Until this time, both the Trump and Biden administrations had stayed out of the the civil lawsuit for Khashoggi's murder. DAWN's lawsuit alleges that MBS and his co-conspirators ordered the abduction, torture, murder, dismemberment, and disappearance of Khashoggi for the purpose of silencing and preventing him from continuing his efforts in the United States as a voice for democratization in the Middle East, principally as DAWN's executive director, the role he held until his murder. 

Neither the Trump nor Biden administrations previously had agreed to Saudi government demands to suggest immunity for MBS in multiple lawsuits pending against him in the United States. In March, MBS reportedly refused a meeting with President Biden and Biden's request to increase Saudi oil output unless the Biden administration granted him immunity from the lawsuits. On July 1, district court judge John Bates, who is hearing the case, issued a deadline of August 1 for the Biden administration to submit a statement of interest on whether MBS should be granted sovereign immunity. Prior to President Biden's scheduled trip to meet with MBS in Riyadh, the administration asked Judge Bates for an extension of the deadline; the court granted a first delay to October 3. 

On September 27, just days before the October 3rd deadline for the Biden administration to weigh in on immunity, King Salman issued an unprecedented royal decree providing an exception to Article 56 of the Basic Law of Governance, which states that the King serves as prime minister. The decree appoints MBS to act as prime minister, in an apparent effort to secure "head of government" immunity.  On September 30, the Justice Department asked for a 45-day delay to respond to the immunity question, citing the "new circumstances" of MBS' appointment as prime minister. On October 5, the Saudi government announced it would slash oil output at its meeting with OPEC member states, widely seen as a snub of U.S. requests for increased output to quell rising oil prices. 

"It's impossible to read the Biden administration's move today as anything more than a capitulation to Saudi pressure tactics, including slashing oil output to twist our arms to recognize MBS's fake immunity ploy," said Whitson. "Rather than rewarding MBS with impunity for his merciless crimes, Biden should have stood up for American values and legal principles."

While  immunity typically extends to sitting heads of state, heads of government, and foreign ministers,  Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy where all power resides ultimately in the King. The decree appointing MBS as prime minister was an unprecedented, exceptional and temporary modification of the Basic Law that designates the King to serve as the prime minister, and it has effect only so long as MBS is crown prince. The designation of immunity is a transparent and bad-faith ploy, designed not to add a substantive role to MBS' responsibilities, but exclusively to gain MBS immunity from lawsuits. 

DAWN's lawsuit includes as defendants senior advisers to MBS who played a leading role in organizing Khashoggi's murder, Saud Al-Qahtani and General Ahmed Assiri. They have joined MBS in filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against them. DAWN's lawsuit against MBS's co-conspirators will proceed regardless of whether or not MBS succeeds in evading jurisdiction. 

"Whether or not MBS succeeds in worming out of this lawsuit, we will extract in discovery against his co-defendants every last bit of evidence about his role in this murders," said Whitson. "Try as he might, he will not succeed in burying his crime."

US President Joe Biden being welcomed by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at Alsalam Royal Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on July 15, 2022.

Source: Photo by Royal Court of Saudi Arabia / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty IMages

Tags: Justice for JamalKhashoggiLawsuit.MBSMohammed Bin Salman
Previous Post

The Climate Case Against Arming Saudi Arabia

Next Post

'They Destroyed Us Because We Are Beirut.' Will There Ever Be Justice for Lebanon's Port Blast?

Related Posts

SHARM EL SHEIKH, EGYPT - NOVEMBER 10: Egyptian security forces look on as a small group of protesters demonstrating outside the venue entrance in support of civil society's role in influencing climate change during the UNFCCC COP27 climate conference on November 10, 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The conference is bringing together political leaders and representatives from 190 countries to discuss climate-related topics including climate change adaptation, climate finance, decarbonisation, agriculture and biodiversity. The conference is running from November 6-18. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Advocacy

Egypt's Restrictive NGO Law Erodes Civil Space, Groups Call on Blinken to Urge Egypt to Amend It

NGOs Call on Secretary Blinken to Urge Egypt to Withdraw Its Upcoming NGO Registration Deadline April 11th is the...

DAWN
March 28, 2023
King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.
Advocacy

Boeing Complicit in Saudi Travel Bans on Peaceful Activists

NGOs call on Boeing to urge Saudi Arabia to lift travel bans on peaceful activists​

DAWN
March 23, 2023
In this photo provided by Ibrahim Almadi to CNN, Saad Ibrahim Almadi sits in a restaurant in an unidentified place, in the United States, on August 2021.
DAWN

Saudi Arabia: Lift Travel Ban on US Citizen Released from Saudi Prison

Saudi Arabia should immediately lift a travel ban it has reportedly imposed on Mr. Saad Almadi,

DAWN
March 21, 2023
An Iraqi woman with her children raise their hands as US soldiers from the 4th Infantry division search their house in Tikrit, 180 Kilometers (110 miles) north of Baghdad, 19 December 2003. US soldiers captured Saddam hiding in a hole at a farm outside his hometown of Tikrit on December 13.         AFP PHOTO/JEWEL SAMAD / AFP PHOTO / JEWEL SAMAD        (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images)
DAWN

'A Never-Ending Cycle of Failures.' The Legacy of the Invasion of Iraq, 20 Years On

(Washington, D.C., March 20, 2023): On the 20th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, DAWN’s journal, Democracy in...

DAWN
March 20, 2023
Next Post

‘They Destroyed Us Because We Are Beirut.’ Will There Ever Be Justice for Lebanon’s Port Blast?

Sudan's Feared Paramilitary Leader Tries to Launder His Image, With Western Help

March 29, 2023
SHARM EL SHEIKH, EGYPT - NOVEMBER 10: Egyptian security forces look on as a small group of protesters demonstrating outside the venue entrance in support of civil society's role in influencing climate change during the UNFCCC COP27 climate conference on November 10, 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The conference is bringing together political leaders and representatives from 190 countries to discuss climate-related topics including climate change adaptation, climate finance, decarbonisation, agriculture and biodiversity. The conference is running from November 6-18. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Egypt's Restrictive NGO Law Erodes Civil Space, Groups Call on Blinken to Urge Egypt to Amend It

March 28, 2023

'It's Not Something We Can Leave in the Past.' George Packer on the Iraq War's Long Legacy

March 23, 2023

Categories

  • Advocacy
  • Aid Conditionality
  • Anonymous Interviews
  • Anonymous Interviews Egypt
  • Anonymous Interviews Saudi Arabia
  • Anonymous Interviews UAE
  • Cases
  • Cases Egypt
  • Cases Saudi Arabia
  • Cases UAE
  • Countries
  • Culprits
  • Culprits Egypt
  • Culprits Israel
  • Culprits Saudi Arabia
  • Culprits UAE
  • DAWN
  • Dawn's Advocacy
  • Democracy In Exile
  • Editor's Pick
  • Egypt
  • Feature
  • Fellows
  • Foreign Policy
  • Human Rights
  • Human Rights Go to War
  • International Actors
  • Israel-Palestine
  • Joint Letters
  • Lobbyists
  • Lobbyists Israel Palestine
  • Palestine
  • Political prisoners
  • Press Release Egypt
  • Press Release Israel-Palestine
  • Press Release Saudi Arabia
  • Press Release UAE
  • Press Releases
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Uncategorized
  • United Nations
  • US – Egypt
  • US – Saudi Arabia
  • US – UAE
  • USA
  • Yemen Conference

SUPPORT OUR MISSION

Donate Today

About Us

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) is a nonprofit organization that promotes democracy, the rule of law, and human rights for all of the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Support Us

Donate Now

Newsletter

Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube

© DAWN All rights reserved. | Website Design by KRS Creative.

DONATE TODAY