GENEVA – Geneva Council for Human Rights and Justice (GCHRJ)called on the Saudi authorities to immediately lift the travel ban on journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s family, who was killed inside his consulate in Istanbul on Monday.
GCHRJ expressed its condemnation a press release over the Saudi authorities’ ban on travel to Khashoggi family and his son Salah, who was forced today to receive condolences from Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The head of the Middle East section of the Geneva Council, Salma Ajam, stressed that preventing Khashoggi’s family, whose case raises widespread international interest and international demands to reveal the truth of what he has been subjected to, constitutes a flagrant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Treaty on Civil and Political Rights, That a citizen has the right to travel freely within and outside the territory of the State in accordance with his / her wishes and decisions.
Ajam also stressed that this constitutes violations of article 13 of the international Declaration of Human Rights, which stipulates that “Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each country.” Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and has the right to return”.
It stressed that the Khashoggi family’s travel ban represents an extension of a terrible crime and added to the black record of the Saudi regime in committing gross human rights violations with full responsibility for the murder of a journalist known for his opposition opinions.
Geneva Council on Human Rights and Justice asked why Saudi authorities are preventing Khashoggi’s family from traveling unless there is something to hide and fears the family will announce to international public opinion if they can feel secure outside the kingdom.
GCHRJ called on the United Nations and its relevant international organizations to intervene immediately to pressure the Saudi authorities to allow the Khashoggi family to travel and to stop its human rights violations.
