The Joe Biden administration on Friday declassified an intelligence report that states that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed approved the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a US-based journalist. Khashoggi was an opinion contributor to The Washington Post, who had written critically about the powerful 35-year-old known by his initials MBS.

Khashoggi was in self-exile back then. The veteran journalist was told by Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US that if he wants to obtain documents for his forthcoming marriage to a Turkish woman, Hatice Cengiz, he has to go to the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.

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On October 2, 2018, within minutes of entering the building, the 59-year-old was strangled, and a 15-member team dismembered his body. The murderers were allegedly sent from Riyadh under the direction of a top aide to Prince Mohammed, Saud al-Qahtani.

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The intelligence report mentioned that seven of the 15 Saudis came from the Rapid Intervention Force. It added that the force had earlier acted to suppress dissent in the kingdom and even abroad.

The Central Intelligence Agency had quickly concluded, as had been widely reported, that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing of Khashoggi but former US president Donald Trump, who boasted of close ties with the kingdom, refused to release the report.