The US State Department determines that Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman should be granted immunity in a US lawsuit brought against him by the fiancée of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to a letter.
"The State Department recognizes and allows the immunity of Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman as a sitting head of government of a foreign state," the letter stated, asking the Department of Justice to recommend immunity to the US district court.
The final decision will be made by Judge John D. Bates, who had asked the US government to file a statement of interest about the applicability of head-of-state immunity, among other issues.
The immunity essentially ends any civil lawsuits against bin Salman over the murder of exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The journalist is believed to have been murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. US intelligence linked Mohammed bin Salman to the assassination, claiming that he had "approved an operation"; however, no evidence was ever made public, and the Saudi Crown Prince has vehemently denied ordering the murder. Furthermore, Riyadh stated that the assassination was carried out by a group of rouge agents and that the Kingdom had launched trials against the perpetrators, later reporting that all of them had been punished.
The US Justice Department's decision on bin Salman's legal immunity comes against the backdrop of efforts recently made by Washington to amend ties with Riyadh following the decision of the OPEC+ led by Saudi Arabia to cut oil production. The United States and Europe have been dealing with an energy crisis due to sanctions the West put on Russia over its special military operation in Ukraine. The Biden administration saw the OPEC+ production cut as a direct affront and said their relationship with the Saudi government was being reevaluated.