RIYADH – The Secretariat General of the Council of Senior Scholars strongly condemned and totally rejected the contents of the report on Jamal Khashoggi's killing by the UN Human Rights Council rapporteur. The Council of Senior Scholars described the report as false accusations against the Kingdom's leadership and judicial system. In a statement issued late Friday night, the Council said: "The UN Human Rights Council rapporteur has based her accusations on biased media concoctions with the intention of escalating the case so as to derail it from its judicial course due to well-known political and ideological reasons so as to disparage the Kingdom – its leadership and people – and to undermine its unity, stability and prosperity." The statement stressed that the report is blatant interference to influence the judicial system in the Kingdom and transgress on the independence of its judiciary, guaranteed by the Basic System of Governance. The statement added: "It is quite clear that the report lacks credibility. The evidence for this is that on the third day of the incident and even before conducting any investigation, the UN rapporteur posted tweets in which she accused the Kingdom of being responsible for the killing. This indicates that there were prior intentions and the UN rapporteur did not care to take any measures to ensure accuracy and objectivity and seek the truth and justice." The Secretariat General of the Council of Senior Scholars said the Kingdom's people and leadership stand united in condemning the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and taking to task those responsible for this act. They also stand united against anyone who attempts to infringe upon the Kingdom's constitution and the independence of its judiciary and judicial system. The Council also asserted that the Kingdom's people and their leadership stand united against anyone who attempts to transgress upon its leadership, who are the symbol of the unity, cohesion, security and stability of this peaceful country – the cradle of Islam, and houses the Islamic sanctities, and is the Qiblah of all Muslims.
