Penang-based Citizens International is also calling for the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia until those responsible for Khashoggi’s kidnap and murder are prosecuted and punished.
“We also want the United States, France, and Britain to impose military and economic sanctions against the Saudi regime,” its chairman SM Mohamed Idris said in a statement.
On Oct 2, Khashoggi, a self-exiled journalist, entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to collect documents to marry a Turkish woman.
He did not come out and his fiancee was told by consulate staff that he had left by the back door.
A few days later, the Saudi government denied involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance after reports claimed that he had been killed.
But on Oct 11, The Washington Post reported that the Turkish government told US officials it had audio and video recordings to proof the journalist had been killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Earlier, Idris noted that the Saudi regime had been condemned by human rights organisations for gross violations of human rights, with opponents of the regime either going missing or thrown into prison.
He claimed there were over 10,000 political prisoners in Saudi Arabia, a majority of whom had been tortured, including social activists and Islamic scholars who did not support the crown prince.
Idris also said Saudi rulers were conducting “a horrendous war” against the poverty-stricken people in Yemen which had seen schools and hospitals bombed.
The Saudi “autocratic regime”, he said, must come to an end as there was no place for such regimes in the modern world.
“The United Nations has to intervene to promote democracy and de-autocratisation just like it supported de-colonisation.”
Idris also claimed that available evidence pointed to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as “the man behind the murder”, adding that it was carried out by the latter’s agents, including his bodyguards.
Saudi Arabia had on Saturday dismissed accusations that Khashoggi was ordered murdered by a hit squad inside its Istanbul consulate, labelling it as “lies and baseless allegations”.