US denies entry to 16 Saudis tied to Jamal Khashoggi's death
WASHINGTON _ The U.S. will deny entry to 16 Saudis over "their roles" in the murder of the columnist Jamal Khashoggi, as the administration seeks to sustain pressure on the kingdom to come up with a credible account of his death, the State Department announced Monday.
The 16 people, including Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had already been sanctioned by the U.S. over Khashoggi's death. Monday's action was done under the 2019 State Department appropriations bill, which requires Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to refuse entry to individuals and immediate family members if he has information that they've been "involved in significant corruption or gross violations of human rights."
"Those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States," the State Department said in a statement.
Khashoggi was killed last Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Questions have centered on whether the crown prince knew about or ordered the killing, a possibility U.S. intelligence agencies consider likely, and whether the Trump administration will be willing to sacrifice its strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia to hold him accountable.
_ Bloomberg News
