Jamal Khashoggi: Turkey must hand over the evidence it has in connection with the murder of the Saudi journalist – The Guardian
Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in 2018.
We start our tour of The Guardian newspaper with an article by Hanan Khashoggi, the widow of the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, entitled “Turkey must give me the evidence it has regarding the murder of my husband.”
The article comes on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Khashoggi, in the consulate of his country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
She wrote that four years ago today, the world lost a brilliant thought leader, journalist, husband, father and grandfather, Jamal Khashoggi.
“As his widow, my loss has been compounded by the blurring of exactly what happened in the days and weeks leading up to his premeditated murder.”
According to the author, the essential elements of evidence that answer ambiguous questions in the case of Jamal’s murder are found on his personal devices that were in his possession, namely two mobile phones, a laptop and a tablet.
Khashoggi’s widow believes that these devices will reveal previously unpublished details about his murder, which are crucial to uncovering the full truth and achieving justice. But these devices are in the possession of the Turkish government.
Through the important work of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, the author found out that her personal devices were targeted by the spy software “Pegasus” of the Israeli programming group “NSO”, and this leads to “an audio and camera surveillance operation, without the knowledge of the victim at all. “launch”.
Further examination of Khashoggi’s wife’s devices revealed that they were monitored by the Pegasus spyware, as well as another spyware called Cellebrite, which was installed on her devices and downloaded all her communications with her late husband, she says.
“All this happened in 2018, before Jamal was killed, and while I was undergoing about 72 hours of horrific interrogation by the Emirati intelligence services.”
The author says that she and her husband used these devices to talk about plans for the future, including trips and other things.
“Is this how they knew all of Jamal’s movements and travel plans? I suspect Jamal’s phones were similarly hacked by the NSO’s Pegasus spyware at the behest of the Saudi government.”
The author adds that in 2019, Agnes Callamard, the former United Nations special rapporteur who investigated Khashoggi’s murder, requested his devices from the Turkish authorities, who told her that they were holding Jamal’s phones and devices as part of their investigations, and that the review of those devices had already been continues.
“I was hoping that during the upcoming trial in Turkey, the prosecutor would reveal the key evidence they collected from Jamal’s organs. But that never happened, as the trial in Turkey was stopped and transferred to Saudi Arabia without any answers.”
The writer stated that she recently submitted a request through her lawyer to the Turkish ambassador to the US to obtain these devices, and she also personally requested this from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but to no avail. Finally, last week she approached the Director of the US National Intelligence Service and Avril Haynes to help her in this.
“I asked her to formally ask Turkey to return this key piece of evidence, in light of the impending legal action in the United States.”
Since Turkey has made it clear that it does not intend to proceed with the investigation into Cemal’s murder or the trial, it should therefore hand over any evidence it still has to his wife.
“As Jamal’s only wife at the time of his death, I want all parties to be held accountable for my husband’s murder, including the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE and the NSO Group.”
“It is crucial for justice to find out whether Jamal’s devices were infected with NSO spyware. Turkey must hand over these devices now,” she concluded.
‘terrible consequences’
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The writer believed that Chinese President Xi Jinping is a rational leader who is neither arrogant nor desperate
We turn to the Financial Times and an article titled “West should remind Xi of economic consequences of threat to Taiwan” written by Charles Barton, a former British diplomat specializing in China.
The writer believes that the most common question among companies about China is whether Beijing will attack Taiwan. However, this is highly unlikely. But if that happens, it will be a global economic and political disaster.
The writer looks at the many valid military reasons why the Chinese military did not take this step, and believes that “the Chinese president is rational, not arrogant or desperate like Vladimir Putin”, and that the risk of invading Taiwan would expose his “Chinese dream” as and his ambition for his country to replace the United States as a global power. express risk.
But military deterrence is a minor part of the story. There are good economic reasons for the CCP not to invade.
The writer says that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company produces most of the advanced semiconductors in the world, and its director has announced that he will not let it fall into the hands of the Chinese.
This can be achieved by targeting it with a precision-guided US missile, or even the easier way, which is to ban the sale of materials, machinery and spare parts necessary for its continued operation, at a time when China’s dependence on foreign semiconductors looks set to continue for a decade, and perhaps and longer.
Another reason is that most of Taiwan’s exports to China, worth about $200 billion, are a component of China’s own exports, so their disappearance will reduce Beijing’s exports by trillions of dollars, trade and investment from other countries will dry up, and transportation and insurance costs will rise. se. Significant.
The writer called on the governments of free and democratic countries to make it clear to the Chinese Communist Party that an invasion or prolonged blockade of Taiwan would lead to the imposition of sanctions.
“Governments must calmly convey this message to the Chinese Communist Party now.”
The writer confirms that the sanctions will take place under the pressure of uproar from ordinary people, the press, parliamentarians and civil society in Western countries, expecting the United States to lead the move and its allies to follow.
“This is insane mutually assured destruction, the basis of Cold War deterrence. The global economy will collapse. The consequences for everyone will be dire, but especially for China and the Chinese Communist Party.”
Since the party runs everything in China, as President Xi Jinping says, and takes credit for all good things, it cannot escape blame when things go wrong.
The writer expects that the introduction of sanctions will dry up supply chains, increase unemployment, which is already around 20 percent among Chinese youth, and in the absence of a meaningful social security system, the resulting poverty and despair will lead to protests and riots, which will be directed at the Chinese Communist Party. .
“Economic collapse will bring suffering on an unprecedented scale. The possibility is that protests will gather and cross provincial, city and even provincial borders. This would expose the party to challenges of a different type.”
At the end of his article, the writer mentioned the Tiananmen Square protests that took place in Beijing in 1989 and were led by students and suppressed by the Chinese government at the time, resulting in the death of hundreds of people.
“Xi knows all that, but there’s no harm in reminding him,” he concluded.
