A good story. Were really interested in taking you into a place that you might not visit otherwise and to actually feels if you were there. A mockery of justice saudi arabia is criticised for reducing the sentences of those convicted of murdering Jamal Khashoggi the case is now closed so will we ever find out the truth about the journalist this is inside story. Hello welcome to the program on iran come on saudi arabia is facing International Criticism after closing the trial of those who murdered the journalist Jamal Khashoggi a court overturned 5 death sentences reducing them to 28 prison terms instead of 3 others were jailed for between 7 and 10 years now the court didnt name the people it convicted but those behind the socalled hit squad escaped punishment as did crown Prince Mohammed bin so man who is widely believed to have ordered the killing. Fields the United Nations and Rights Groups have condemned the secret trial which began last december will bring in i guess in a moment but 1st this report by alexia brian. The saudi hit squad accused of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi was caught on camera landing in turkey and entering the kingdoms consulate in istanbul thats where a prominent and well connected critic of saudi crown Prince Mohammed bin solomon was interrogated killed and dismembered but while 21 men were detained by saudi arabia over his murder and 11 went on trial much of what happened in the courtroom remains a mystery the trial was a secret and close trial that there was no International Jurors in the hands of the victims or the accused were not. Published. And theres no more. Appeal possible so the nature of the evidence on every technical part of the trial or most has been questioned by. Internationally accepted judicial standards last year 5 of them were given the Death Penalty for the killing but thats been cut to 20 years in prison 3 others have been given sentences of 7 to 10 years and what say is calling a fast 2 of the sounds met the saudi king and crown prince in the weeks after their fathers killing the cia and other intelligence agencies have said theres a direct link between the crown prince and the murder the case caused worldwide outrage and tarnished mohammed bin sahlins reputation with several of those in the hit squad coming from within his in a circle though he denies involvement the u. N. Experts who investigated g. s murder said in a series of tweets the saudi prosecution performed one more act today in this parody of justice but these verdicts carry no legal all moral legitimacy she went on to say that crown Prince Mohammed bin solomon remained well protected against any meaningful scrutiny in his country and that the verdicts cant be allowed to whitewash what happened the saudi prosecutors say is this closes the case both privately and publicly many though say justice for who shoghi has not been served brian the inside story. I. Lets bring in our guests all joining us from washington d. C. Alley al ahmed director at the institute for gulf affairs alley is a saudi dissident and a former political prisoner shareef months or middle east and north africa coordinator for the committee to protect journalists and. Executive director of the Arab Center Washington d. C. And a former colleague and friend of Jamal Khashoggi a warm welcome to you all and lets begin with you josh on the saudi say that justice has been served the case is closed pretty much everybody else says actually no it hasnt been served at all including the United Nations has justice been served. This is not just this miami stretch of the imagination and the case is not closed for the most logical reason. Number one you know after what proceedings that lasted more than a year and a half we still do not know who ordered the killing in terms of the verdict covers only 8 out of 15 from that team that gave. Him the assassination stumbo. Seems to me that this verdict i mean the more you look at it with all due respect to the Prosecutors Office and riyadh it seems to me its more politics its more p. R. Than it is justice and accountability so in my humble judgment the case is not quote at all. The proceedings were held in secret we dont know who has been convicted with the names of the people whove been convicted we dont still dont even know where Jamal Khashoggi his body might be has there been any justice here. Well this is why i never call the saudi courts the Justice System the saudi court system is part of the Security Apparatus in saudi arabia and although International Standards for the courts and for justice requires transparency. In terms of such cases but surely that involves murder. Youre absolutely right we dont know who are the accused we dont know the proceedings i have followed i have you know and i have. Documents of other cases where people were executed for protesting for example and you can get the proceedings their family at least can get them in this case we dont know we know the proceedings we dont know what the judge told these defendants and what the saudi Prosecutors Office. Raised. Is absolutely right in the issue here none of these trials have said anything about who actually ordered or conceived of the idea of killing kushal. And this is again this is just a congo court that is aimed at closing this case and moving forward the this is not limited to this case the saudi court system is and has been for decades a place where the state. Controls the people and if you. For example protests you can die but if you murder people you can walk. You walk with no problem and it happened many many times to a member of their own family for example who was shot people in the in the middle of the street the nigerian anyone else and thats actually a very interesting point in in that this case was about people who were very close to the crown Prince Mohammed bin psalm on. Just how much of a bearing do you think that the fact these were confidence of the crown prince had on the saudis wanting to get this done quickly and close it quickly. I think there were 2 factors for the speed with which this has been done at least this last phase of legal considerations in saudi arabia one definitely the proximity of those involved to the crown prince the fact of the matter that the all the key figures in the group of 15 that carried out this mission were closely affiliated or associated with the crown prince some office directly or some other foundations affiliated with him 2nd i think is the issue and we need to kind of focus on that a bit more. Media hasnt really fully focused on it is the pressure from the United States i think this verdict in a way is an attempt to appease the pressure from the people affiliated with mr tom particularly questioner and advising if you will and urging the crown prince to to proceed in this direction to close this case because its becoming a hindrance to further cooperation between riyadh and washington particularly the p. R. Issues it has created in washington for the saudis particularly in congress sharif and so i just want to come to you very quickly you will the middle east no talk of a coordinator for the committee to protect journalists hey it was an opportunity to saudi arabia to really do something to show that it was serious about protecting journalists it was serious about journalism within the country it clearly didnt do that saudi arabia is too big to criticize its got away with this surely. Well they think they did and thats why they keep invoking the warped final verdict. Whatever that happened in court and its in though on. Think that the fact that they never thought just as they just thought of how to shut this down was the least consequences specifically for muhammad bin said men and his top aides. We think this is all a matter of distinct Public Opinion trying to find a way to cover this up without much more questions asked even fundamental questions about were. Buddy is about who is the mastermind they didnt even try it and it could ability by showing the names of the people involved we dont know 8 people is we only know of 27 people names that has been circulated in even the Turkish Court and in International Reports by u. N. In this together as a whole other sanction system i think this is where people are actually we the 4 justice which is International Justice sanctions directed specifically at m. B. s at his cocoa knees anyone who was involved in planning and not just executing guiding people who did this even people who tried to cover this up not just in saudi in the United States and thats what we see because youre going to make sure that everything becomes public. You can keep secrets in saudi but you cannot keep secrets. And you cannot keep. U. S. And International Institution from doing that just because you are an international funding. Later this year but sure if you might not be able to slow the us down it may well get to a point where there is names have been named just as has been so internationally that might happen but it wont happen as long as mohammed bin solomon and george cushion and the present us President Donald Trump all all have the same goal which is just wiping this under the carpet and moving on and getting on with the election in november how do you suggest that the International Community speed things up. So because of this case actually the outcry that resulted from it have pressured institutions and government world war 2 and we saw for the 1st time action. Stopping military aid stopping intelligence training intelligence collaboration and in some ways was drawing support from n. B. S. Who years ago so that he will descend to the crew home without a problem so we think there is still a chance and. Could he think a political consequence for business element and part of that consequence doesnt just stop pressure peckish its also good beyond the. Individual case to the broader freedom issues including the treatment of other shortlist and custody you have more than 20 years on medicine custody in saudi more are being arrested we need. Men to recognize that they have a role to make up for what happened not just but built serving justice in this case by broadening their reforms to actually become meaningful so that the International Community can continue to have a relationship with the government of saudi because this is a government sedition its not just one individual its made you think sharif and stories being just a little bit too optimistic and thinking that things will get to a point where justice will be served. Look the Term Administration and i have to disagree with my friend here is not pressuring the saudis they are working together it can take conspiring really is to make this go away before the elections as soon as possible you know you have the g. 20 meetings they dont want that. You know negative coverage or 2 to harm them so it was the u. S. Is supporting the saudi the Top Administration actually supporting the saudi government in terms of trying to cover this up and to make this go away. The idea that there is an international. Effort to hold justice for joe hockey or for others i dont think thats realistic it has to have been before for greater issues and problems not only in saudi arabia but for what we call the pro western camps or countries where murders have been committed and they know they got away with it if you look at the iraqi event. They you have hundreds of people who have been killed and its not happening so really i dont think there is something be the justice of it will be served it will be you know from within the country if there is a political shift in that in that country but otherwise internationally i think the lying and socalled International Efforts is futile and it doesnt happen it hasnt happened to the palestinians or other other people in the region especially. Its been described to us saudi relationship has been described as one of a blind eye and turning a blind eye the u. S. Has given saudi arabia lets say leeway a lot of leeway when it comes to operating internally is this just another manifestation of that blind alley policy that theyre just not interested. Exactly i think this has been the case from from day one. I would remind you the 1st comment by the president when the when this happened it was kind of total denial and. That we have been in touch with our friends in riyadh and they deny all this and then the president had to kind of tone down if you will this. Kind of defense by saudi arabia and to kind of mimic the arguments made by the crown prince and others in this regard that the saudis even what im a bit more responsive the administration in admitting the fact that once they had method barras the administration yet didnt do much to really confront saudi arabia in this regard i think ali misunderstood when i said pressure pressure is im not i didnt say pressure in the negative sense or and and the kind of aggressive sense where the president the president of the United States is pushing this case on the contrary he just wants it out of the way so yes. Coconspirator. To close this file because it has become a nuisance for him as i said particularly in relationship with the legislative branch to pass issues and deals that he would like to proceed with in terms of the relationship but there any relationship has always been out of whack between d riyadh and washington sheriff insular this isnt 990 anymore its 2021 of the biggest tools you have at your disposal is social media is the internet is talking to dissidents within saudi arabia who are able to get you information out when it comes to these things. Can you put enough pressure on the Saudi Arabian government through social media through the things that weve just talked about to get on says or is it is it still an all controlling state. Thankfully im not just being hooked to mystic here im just. Nice and how vast the interest of saudi and then finance of the boy is and that comes with the price they do care about what people think about them and they do care about inviting celebrities from all over the world to come this reform agenda b. S. Is trying to force over the course of the next 30 years is all about being open and collaborative. Modernizing the society and that cannot happen while this case continues to be the biggest elephant in the room there is nor whom big enough where International Visitors can meet with them started counterparts and think the saudi she is not going to be on the team it will be for as much as m. B. s is power as much as he is that effect tool in saudi and it will continue to haunt any effort of International Collaboration investment tourism that this government is trying to do in order to appease to the International Community. It is interesting isnt it you have a saudi arabia that wants to be open wants to encourage tourism that wants to be a Global Player yet domestically you have a saudi arabia that seems to be going backwards arresting dissidents murdering people in consulates and behaving generally like it is a state from the 1950 s. Communist era. And then this has been basically the recipe that. Washington has supported in the region i recall mike some conversations i had with people in the state department to. Run the Saudi Affairs and they basically said the same thing that you know we want to modernize the country but politically it has to be very oppressive we want them to learn math but we want them also to be very extreme in their views thats the pup talking about the population we support taking nothing. Recall this conversation when i viewed. Decades of american statesmans on saudi arabia the word people was never mentioned in those statements so after i made a fuss they started using the word people. That is the model that the u. S. Strategic has used for the region and in the arab countries arab majority countries is that we deal with you know dictators the people who do not matter and that this mother continues until today it is about how can we get our interest from these rulers absolute rulers what you saw for example in egypt is one you know its an example of what they were as wants to see in that region loyal allies who would deliver anything the u. S. Wants or with the u. K. Wants and then the rest does not matter torture kill or whatever doesnt matter the type of government it doesnt matter that with but that is how can we get our interest through with the bases the arms sales we already have we are going out to totally element i want to come to our other guest as well just on jeffreys cases going through the u. S. Courts at the moment its getting a lot of play within u. S. Foreign policy circles theres a man who is claiming that the crown prince sent a team to canada to kill him. Is that a court case that you think will be a turning point in saudi u. S. Relations. Not yet depends if the case is really pursued legally in court it might thats far i think it has been an embarrassment definitely and no sense in the bilateral relationship between the 2 but should the courts take it seriously and pursue it which i doubt i have a feeling that this case is essentially a p. R. Case by those concerned in the sense that jobbery is essentially trying to pressure the saudi government publicly publicly to leave him and his family alone if that is achieved before the court proceeds then that might be the end of that case but also the case has so much National Security implications best president and the president in this country shows that courts tend to avoid these cases but advice from the white house and the state department so im not optimistic that the case is going to really see the day of light and normal judicial procedure in this country sheriff. Do you think i guess both though i guess in washington d. C. Also talk about the american influence and the american influence on saudi arabia having an impact not just on this court case but on relations genu. Generally do you believe that the americans are a big factor here. Theyve always been that relationship between the u. S. Administration and saudi has always been close and even prison trump. Said publicly in front of his supporters that the crown prince his own the u. S. For protection is personal protection as well that gives a lot of pressure ability and also a lot of literature to use and im not putting down much else if you want to have set up a. Lack of pressure for a. Close relationship that this administration has im just saying that its not just the u. S. President that matters and thats why were going to use for their own courts to pressure. That ministration to reveal the things that they are stopping congress and others from saying publicly and to make it easier to identify if it would be as publicly as that are responsible person for this i want to thank all our guests Allie Al Sharif and sought and just shown and thank you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website out is there at dot com until further discussion their top Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story and you can also join the conversation on twitter we are at a. J. Inside story from me and long and the entire team here into now. These men are survivors of coppa 1946 year old is a limousine driver is the only one here who needed to go to hospital when he became bill in early march with being. Boarded or to some balance board in november so deep is a 34 year old driver for guitar a family and he tested positive my body is good it will all be small but will you all be Health Officials say the rate of new infections has slowed the goal here is to conduct a broad serving to better understand transmission and asymptomatic cases which in turn could help policy decisions in the future so it would be easy for us to inform the a Decision Making on a what to do next the goal now is to increase testing and contact tracing. The government provides free testing and medical treatment for those who need it while campaigns to raise awareness continue. 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Clo this is al jazeera live from doha back to war also ahead fire forces thousands of migrants and refugees out of their camp on the greek island of les pauls just