No free pen is broken and no voice is silenced.

These are the words from the last few tweets of Washington Post’s journalist Jamal Khashoggi. When he tweeted from the self imposed exile in the United States; Jamal was one of the important critics of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its policies. Jamal was a firm supporter of ideas like democracy, secularism and its adjustments with Islam. He also emphasized on the need of calibrating the idea of secularism with Islam. Khashoggi was also working on many projects which were directed towards educating the youth of Saudi about democracy. 

Jamal Khashoggi was killed on 2nd October 2018 in the Saudi Arabian consulate located in Istanbul, Turkey. Several reports and investigations took place which stated that Jamal was killed and his body was disposed somewhere else. After two years when the report of United States has been made public the role of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman in the assassination of Khashoggi is in the news again. 

The team of 15 members which carried out the killing of journalist Khashoggi was found to be associated with the Rapid Intervention Force which is a subset of Saudi Royal Guard which only answers to the crown prince and it is the most elite personal protective team of the Crown Prince.

From 2017 Mohammad Bin Salman has had complete control over the Kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations. So it is highly unlikely that members of these organizations will carry out such an assassination without approval of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. 

When we look at the close ties of former US president Donald Trump and Mohammad Bin Salman we can understand why this delay of making the investigation report public happened. 

The US on the other hand has imposed the ‘Khashoggi Ban’ which is nothing but travel and financial sanctions on 76 individuals of the Saudi Arabia who were involved in this operation. 

Secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US will not tolerate individuals who threaten or assault activists, dissidents and journalists on behalf of foreign governments. This ban is merely a visa restriction policy on ‘individuals who are acting on behalf of foreign governments are believed to have been directly in serious extraterritorial counter dissident activities.’

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia has firmly rejected the assumptions made in the US report. It also said that these are false, negative assessments which defame the Kingdom’s leadership. The 15 members group which did this crime of killing Jamal Khashoggi have been investigated and they can ensure that justice will be served.