Mohammed bin Salman has been named Saudi Arabia’s prime minister in a move that experts say would likely shield the crown prince from a potentially damaging lawsuit in the United States in connection with his alleged role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that King Salman was making an exception to Saudi law and appointing his son prime minister, officially handing over the dual titles of king and prime minister he personally held until now.
The development is unlikely to alter the balance of power in Saudi Arabia, where the 37-year-old prince is already seen as the de facto ruler of the kingdom and heir to the throne.
But the timing of the decision was seen by critics of the Saudi government as almost certainly linked to an impending court-ordered deadline next week. The Biden administration had been asked by a US judge to rule on whether Prince Mohammed should be protected by sovereign immunity in a case brought by Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. Such protection is usually given to a world leader, such as a prime minister or king.
In July, the administration asked for a delay in filing its response to the court, which had originally been requested before August 1. John Bates, a district court judge, agreed to extend the deadline until October 3. Among other questions, he called on the administration to comment on whether it thinks Prince Mohammed should enjoy immunity under rules that protect the countries head of state.
“It seems like [Prince Mohammed] was advised to take this step before the response from the Biden administration is expected on October 3,” said Abdullah Alaoudh, Gulf director at Dawn, a Washington-based pro-democracy group, which is a party to the Khashoggi lawsuit. . “Practically, [becoming prime minister] it makes no difference.”
The White House did not immediately comment. Prince Mohammed has denied having any personal involvement in Khashoggi’s murder. An assessment by US intelligence found that the future king was likely to have ordered the murder.
The decision to appoint Prince Mohammed as prime minister would also likely allay any lingering concerns in Saudi Arabia that the crown prince could be arrested or face legal challenges while traveling abroad.
The civil complaint against Prince Mohammed, which was filed by Cengiz in Washington DC Federal District Court in October 2020, alleges that he and other Saudi officials acted in a “conspiracy and with premeditation” when Saudi agents abducted, bound, drugged, tortured and killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Khashoggi, a former Saudi insider who had fled the kingdom and resided in Virginia in the southeastern United States, was an outspoken critic of the crown prince and was actively seeking to counter Saudi propaganda online at the time he was killed.
Cengiz said in a statement to The Guardian: “The fight for justice must succeed – it will not be stopped because MBS takes another title for itself.”
Critics of the Saudi regime, including activists who live in exile in the United States and Europe, have warned that the crown prince’s crackdown on dissent has intensified in recent months.
The Guardian has learned that the UK government has sought to intervene in at least one high-profile case, involving Salma al-Shehab, a PhD student at the University of Leeds who was arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced to 34 years in prison after returning home. from the UK for a holiday. His crime, under Saudi law, was to use Twitter to follow and sometimes like or retweet tweets from dissidents and activists.
The Guardian has been told by a source requesting anonymity that officials at the British Embassy in Riyadh have raised concerns about Shehab’s case with Saudi authorities. Tariq Ahmad, a conservative peer, also raised the matter during an August 25 meeting with the Saudi ambassador to the UK, the source said.
The UK government will face more pressure to act this week with the expected release of a letter from 400 academics, including staff and research students at UK universities and colleges calling for urgent action on the case of Shahab.
The letter calls on Liz Truss, the Prime Minister, and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to “publicly condemn the sentencing of Salma al-Shehab and to make representations to their Saudi counterparts for her immediate release”. It was sponsored by the pro-democracy group Alqst, which defends human rights in Saudi Arabia. The group said: “Salma should look forward, like us, to the new academic year, instead of languishing behind bars for the ‘crime’ of tweeting her legitimate views.”
The letter notes that Shehab, a 34-year-old mother of two who worked as a dental hygienist and received a scholarship to study in the UK, was arrested on January 15, 2021 while on vacation in Saudi Arabia. Court records show she was placed in solitary confinement, interrogated and detained for 285 days before her trial. She denies the allegations against her.
Truss has so far not indicated that she would be likely to take a critical stance towards her new counterpart. The British Prime Minister had a phone call with Prince Mohammed this week in which his office thanked him for helping to free five British detainees from Russian-backed forces. She also offered the UK’s “continued support and encouragement for the progress of Saudi Arabia’s domestic reforms”.
