On Friday, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence published a declassified report saying that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman had approved an operation to assassinate Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018.
“We will look at the report that has been published, today,” Garneau told reporters on Friday. “But the fact remains, Canada wants the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to allow a full inquiry so that we can get to the bottom of what actually happened.”
Garneau added that he, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and tasked with signing off on military export permits, will not hesitate to suspend permits to Saudi Arabia if there is any “hint” of human rights being violated.”
Saudi Arabia has strongly refuted the information about the alleged role of the Kingdom's leadership in Khashoggi’s murder. According to the Foreign Ministry, the kingdom has already convicted and sentenced those responsible for the death of Khashoggi.
Khashoggi, a Saudi-born Washington Post columnist, went missing in 2018 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi government initially denied any knowledge of Khashoggi's whereabouts, but eventually admitted that he was killed and dismembered inside the consulate.
