AI-generated summary
France has opened an investigation into the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi after NGOs accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of complicity in the killing.
The 59-year-old journalist and Washington Post columnist was killed in 2018 while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. His body is believed to have been dismembered and was never recovered. Saudi authorities acknowledged that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate but insisted that rogue officials carried out the operation without authorization from the leadership.
In July 2022, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) – Khashoggi’s former organization – and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) filed a legal complaint accusing Mohammed bin Salman of complicity in torture and enforced disappearance as part of an organized group. The complaint alleged that he ordered “the murder by asphyxiation” of Khashoggi.
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) opposed opening the investigation, a position criticized by RSF lawyer Emmanuel Daoud as “realpolitik in the name of France’s superior economic interests so as not to anger the Saudi authorities.”
The Paris Court of Appeal has now ruled that “the possibility that these acts could be classified as crimes against humanity cannot be ruled out.”
“An investigating judge from the crimes against humanity unit will now examine the complaint,” the prosecutor’s office told AFP on Saturday.
Khashoggi once served as an adviser to the Saudi government and was close to the royal family before becoming a prominent critic of the kingdom’s leadership and relocating to the US. Saudi prosecutors said the journalist died after being forcibly restrained and injected with an overdose of drugs during what they described as a failed attempt to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia.
A US intelligence report released by the Biden administration in 2021 concluded that Mohammed bin Salman exercised “absolute control” over the kingdom and that Saudi security organizations had approved an operation to “capture or kill” Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia rejected the assessment as “false and unacceptable.”
US President Donald Trump, however, said last year that the crown prince “knew nothing” about the plan to kill the journalist.

Мировой судья Ломоносовского района Москвы заочно приговорил комика Семена Слепакова к 400 часам обязательных работ за уклонение от обязанностей иноагента.

Мировой суд в Москве заочно назначил комику Семену Слепакову 400 часов обязательных работ за уклонение от обязанностей иноагента. Комик объявлен в международный розыск.

Russia has opened a criminal case against Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung journalist Michael Martens for inciting hatred after he asked how to 'help kill more Russians' during a press conference. Authorities are currently processing his status for an international search.

Уполномоченный по правам человека в Тульской области Александр Головин пообещал защитить права ребенка, которого власти города Болохово решили привлечь к ответственности за рисунок героев мультфильма «Смешарики» на детской площадке.

Алла Пугачева лишена права на владение землей в Солнечногорске. Под угрозой потери находится также ее усадьба на берегу Истринского водохранилища из-за незаконного присвоения земли.

Арбитражный суд Московского округа назначил на 27 октября рассмотрение жалобы бывшей супруги Владимира Потанина. Ранее суд запретил ей инициировать разбирательства в иностранных судах, опасаясь раскрытия конфиденциальной информации о «Норникеле».