118 HRES 753 IH: Commemorating the fifth anniversary of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and calling for accountability.
U.S. House of Representatives
2023-09-30
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IV
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 753
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 30, 2023
Mr. Connolly (for himself, Mr. Beyer, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Ms. McClellan, Ms. Wexton, Ms. Spanberger, Mr. Phillips, Mr. McGovern, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Carson, Ms. Omar, Ms. Norton, Mr. Keating, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Doggett, Mr. Moulton, Ms. Adams, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Titus, Ms. Jacobs, Mr. Vargas, Mr. Trone, Ms. McCollum, Ms. Velázquez, Mr. Lynch, Ms. Lee of California, Mr. Castro of Texas, Mr. Raskin, Mr. Allred, Mr. Evans, Ms. Clarke of New York, and Mr. Blumenauer) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
RESOLUTION
Commemorating the fifth anniversary of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and calling for accountability.
Whereas Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist, author, and a former general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who fled Saudi Arabia in June 2017 and went into self-imposed exile in Virginia in the United States;
Whereas, on September 18, 2017, Jamal Khashoggi published his first article in the Washington Post, stating, “I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice. To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot. I want you to know that Saudi Arabia has not always been as it is now. We Saudis deserve better.”;
Whereas, on October 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by agents of the Government of Saudi Arabia in the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul, Turkey;
Whereas, in February 2021, the Government of the United States submitted an unclassified report to Congress, providing transparency on the killing and announced the Khashoggi Ban, a measure that allows the Department of State to impose visa restrictions on individuals who “directly engage in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities, including those that suppress, harass, surveil, threaten, or harm journalists, activists, or other persons perceived to be dissidents”;
Whereas the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman, approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Khashoggi;
Whereas, since the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Government of Saudi Arabia continues to crack down on free expression through the use of enforced disappearances, unjust detentions, threats, intimidation, and transnational repression;
Whereas Freedom House defines transnational repression as “governments reaching across borders to silence dissent among diasporas and exiles, including through assassinations, illegal deportations, abductions, digital threats, Interpol abuse, and family intimidation”;
Whereas the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of State are part of a recently launched “whole-of-government” response to transnational repression, which is being coordinated by the National Security Council;
Whereas, according to Freedom House, the Governments of Iran, the People's Republic of China, Egypt, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and other states are increasingly disregarding the laws of the United States to threaten, harass, surveil, stalk, and, in some cases, plot physical harm to individuals across the United States;
Whereas citizens of the United States Areej al-Sadhan, sister of detained humanitarian aid worker Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, and Abdullah Alaoudh of Virginia, son of detained scholar Salman Alodah, have been subject to intimidation and harassment in the United States;
Whereas, in August 2022, a former Twitter employee was found guilty of acting as an unregistered agent of the Government of Saudi Arabia, spying on Saudi dissidents and sharing their private information with Saudi leadership;
Whereas Saudi officials have continued to arrest, ban the travel of, and otherwise intimidate women and women human rights defenders, including Loujain Alhathloul, Manahel and Fouz al-Otaibi, Fatima al-Shawarbi, Dr. Lina al-Sharif, Salma al-Shehab, and Nourah al-Qahtani;
Whereas Saudi border security systematically killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants, including women and children, crossing the Saudi-Yemeni border between March 2022 and June 2023, subjecting others to brutal violence and sexual assault;
Whereas Saudi officials continue to unjustly imprison and ban individuals from the United States from travel, including Walid Fitahi and his family, Salah Haidar, Aziza Yousef, and Saad Almadi;
Whereas Saudi human rights abuses, including against individuals of the United States, place unnecessary strain on the United States-Saudi Arabia relationship, which is an essential element of regional stability; and
Whereas the United States has an important strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia, one based on a long history of cooperation on regional security issues and energy supply: Now, therefore, be it
That the House of Representatives—
(1)
acknowledges the Government of the United States has sanctioned 17 Saudi individuals under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114–328; 22 U.S.C. 10101 et seq.) for their roles in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi; and
(2)
calls for the Government of Saudi Arabia to—
(A)
ensure appropriate accountability for all individuals responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, including the individuals sanctioned by the United States;
(B)
release all individuals wrongfully detained, including Salma Alshehab, Nourah al-Qahtani, Abdulrahman Alsadhan, Muhammed al-Qahtani, Salman Alodah, Waleed Abu al-Khair, and Sarah and Omar Aljabri;
(C)
lift travel bans and other arbitrary restrictions on dissidents and former political prisoners, including Raif Badawi; and
(D)
respect the rights of Saudi citizens and ensure the protection of the freedoms of assembly, association, and the press.