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UN investigator in Khashoggi case says she was threatened by Saudi official

Agnes Callamard told The Guardian that a UN colleague informed her a visiting Saudi official threatened to have her "taken care of" during a meeting in Geneva in January 2020.

Agnes Callamard
The United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, speaks on Dec. 3, 2019, in Brussels regarding the UN investigation into the unlawful death of Jamal Khashoggi. — ARIS OIKONOMOU/AFP via Getty Images

A top Saudi official last year issued a death threat against Agnes Callamard, the United Nations special investigator who probed the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Callamard told The Guardian that a UN colleague informed her that a visiting Saudi official twice threatened to have Callamard "taken care of" during a meeting of Saudi and UN officials in Geneva in January 2020.

The UN officials in the room understood the comment to be a death threat, Callamard told the newspaper. 

“When UN officials expressed alarm, other Saudis who were present sought to reassure them that the comment ought not to be taken seriously,” reported The Guardian, which said it independently confirmed Callamard’s account. 

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