The Biden administration defiantly announced to a U.S. court on Thursday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should receive sovereign immunity from a civil case lawsuit filed by the fiancée of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was brutally murdered in 2018 in Saudi Arabia. While a judge will ultimately decide whether to grant the crown prince immunity, the move is in direct contrast to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, when he called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state and alleged that the crown prince, known as MBS, had masterminded the murder and gruesome dismemberment of the columnist himself. In the filing released late Thursday night, the Biden administration based its argument on MBS’ recent promotion to prime minister, saying he is now “the sitting head of government and, accordingly, immune” from the lawsuit. “The United States government has expressed grave concerns regarding Jamal Khashoggi’s horrific killing and has raised these concerns publicly and with the most senior levels of the Saudi government,” the Department of Justice said in its filing. “However, the doctrine of head of state immunity is well established in customary international law and has been consistently recognized in longstanding executive branch practice as a status-based determination that does not reflect a judgment on the underlying conduct at issue in the litigation,” it said. Saudi Arabia says MBS had no direct role in the killing.
