Saudi prince subject of legal complaint during Paris visit

A human rights group said it filed a legal complaint with a Paris court on Thursday alleging complicity Saudi Arabia’s crown prince – who is visiting France – in the gruesome 2018 killing of U.S.-based Saudi journal Jamal Khashoggi.
The Washington-based group, Democracy for the Arab World Now, or DAWN, called on French authorities to open a criminal investigation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was scheduled to meet French President Emmanuel Macron for a working dinner later Thursday.
In a statement on its website, the group said it filed a 42-page complaint arguing that the prince was an accomplice to the torture of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in anbul, Turkey in 2018 and his disappearance.
DAWN focuses on human rights violations in Gulf Arab autocracies, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
It said two other rights groups backed its call for a French investigation and argued that the prince should not have immunity from prosecution because he is not the Saudi head of state.
“As a party to the U.N. Conventions against torture and enforced disappearances, France is obliged to investigate a suspect such as Bin Salman if he is present on French territory,” Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s executive director, said in the statement.