According to court records, the US administration proposed on Thursday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman be exempt from prosecution for the 2018 murder of a dissident journalist.
In late September, Prince Mohammed was appointed prime minister by royal proclamation, prompting speculation that he was attempting to avoid scrutiny in cases brought before foreign courts, including a civil lawsuit brought in the US by Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of murdered columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
A Saudi insider-turned-critic named Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate four years ago, briefly making Prince Mohammed, sometimes known as MBS, a pariah in the West
His attorneys have in the past claimed that because he "sits at the top of Saudi Arabia's government," he is entitled to the same level of immunity that US courts grant foreign heads of state and other high-ranking officials.
If the US administration decided to express an opinion at all, it had until Thursday to do so. The court is not obligated by its advice.
The submission from President Joe Biden's administration to the US District Court for the District of Columbia stated: "The United States respectfully informs the Court that Defendant Mohammed bin Salman, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the sitting head of government and, accordingly, is immune from this suit."
Cengiz and those who supported her action, including members of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), the US-based NGO that Khashoggi established, were incensed by the advice
Cengiz tweeted, "Jamal died again today."
"Not everyone anticipated the choice. We hoped that the #USA would serve as a beacon of justice, but as always, financial gain came first."
The executive director of DAWN, Sarah Leah Whitson, said that the Biden administration "went out of its way to recommend immunity for MBS and shield him from accountability.
"We can anticipate MBS's attacks against people in our country to escalate even further now that Biden has declared he enjoys complete impunity."
The recommendation was referred to as a "grave betrayal" by Agnes Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International.
Former deputy prime minister and defence minister under his father King Salman, Prince Mohammed has been the kingdom's de facto ruler for a number of years.
He was welcomed back into the international stage this year after a time of relative exile following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, particularly by Biden, who visited Saudi Arabia in July despite having previously vowed to declare the country a "pariah."
According to Khalid al-Jabri, the son of Saad al-Jabri, a former Saudi spymaster who has accused the prince of sending a hit squad to try to kill him in Canada, Thursday's suggestion gave the leader "a licence to kill."
The Biden administration, he claimed, "has not only insulated MBS from justice in US courts, but has rendered him more dangerous than ever with a licence to kill more critics without consequences" after abandoning its promise to hold MBS accountable for the murder of Khashoggi.
The Saudi government denies Biden's claim that Prince Mohammed approved the operation against Khashoggi, which was revealed in a declassified intelligence dossier released last year.
Cengiz and DAWN filed a legal lawsuit in which they claim Prince
Mohammed and more than 20 other defendants "acted in a conspiracy and with
premeditation" to abduct, bind, drug, torture, and kill Khashoggi, a
Washington Post contributor.
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