Biden administration says Saudi prince immune from lawsuit over killing of journalist

The Biden administration decided on Thursday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is immune from a lawsuit over the 2018 killing of Washington Publish columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

The State Division stated that because the sitting head of presidency of a international nation, the Saudi crown prince was legally immune from such a lawsuit.

“In making this immunity willpower, the Division of State takes no view on the deserves of the current go well with and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous homicide of Jamal Khashoggi,” the division stated in a courtroom submitting.

Khashoggi was killed within the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. The CIA later concluded that Prince Mohammed had ordered the killing of the U.S.-based journalist.

Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, sued Prince Mohammed in U.S. courtroom in 2020. Nevertheless, a federal decide in Washington, D.C., requested the federal authorities final month to weigh in on the case by this Thursday.

The Biden administration’s immunity willpower represents a reversal for President Biden, who promised on the marketing campaign path in 2020 to make the Saudi crown prince a “pariah” for the killing of Khashoggi.