Saudi crown prince’s ‘planned visit for Queen’s funeral’ sparks human rights backlash
17 September 2022, 08:06
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is reportedly planning to visit Britain to pay his respects to the Queen.
The plan to touch down in London tomorrow to pay his respects have drawn condemnation, including from Hatch Cengiz, the fiancee of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Critics say it represents an opportunity for him to ‘seek legitimacy’ and would be a ‘stain’ on the Queen’s memory.
A source told the Guardian that Prince Mohammed will travel to the UK to pay condolences although there is no information on whether he would attend the funeral on Monday.
Read more: Public urged not to join queue to see Queen lying in state as wait time reaches 25 hours
Cengiz said: “The crown prince should not be allowed to be part of this mourning and not be allowed to stain her memory and use this time mourning to seek legitimacy.”
In a report earlier this week, CNN Arabic said Prince Mohammed would not attend the funeral.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, the UK-based director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said: “Authoritarian dictators should not use the Queen’s death as an opportunity to try to rehabilitate their image.”
The visit would represent his first visit to the UK since the murder of Washington Post columnist Mr Khashoggi in October 2018.
In 2020 the UK sanctioned six Saudis for their alleged killing of Khashoggi. Some of them were senior advisers to the crown prince.
The crown prince has always denied any prior knowledge of the attack at the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
Eight defendants have been jailed for between seven and 20 years for the killing.
