UN rights expert urges US action over Khashoggi killing

The United Nations human rights expert who conducted an independent probe into the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Tuesday urged the US to act on her damning findings.

Agnes Callamard, a UN special rapporteur who concluded that Khashoggi's death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October was "an extrajudicial execution" by the Gulf kingdom, criticised the United States over its inaction.

"(It) has the jurisdiction or at least the interest to take action," she told a London conference hosted by human rights groups on the killing of the Saudi-born US resident.

"Silence is not an option. Speaking up is required but not enough. We have to act," Callamard said.

The UN rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions said Washington could act "either through an FBI investigation (or) a civil law investigation... (or) the declassification of CIA and other materials".

"All of those things I believe can be done and should be done."
"They did the minimum to keep them within the remit of what is expected from a Western government."