The possible prosecution of the Saudi crown prince in Germany as a new form of fight against crimes against humanity

The complaint of the Reporters Without Borders association, filed in Germany, with a 500-page dossier, against the crown prince Mohamed bin Salman and other members of his circle, accused of the murder of the journalist, an opponent of the regime, Jamal Khasoggi, which took place in Turkey in 2018, it becomes a legal weapon of the West against Saudi Arabia. This initiative comes after President Biden removed the secret from the CIA dossier, wanted by Trump, on the actual responsibilities, as the instigator of the journalist’s murder. The near contemporaneity of the two initiatives demonstrates how the bond between the US and the European Union has strengthened with the new tenant of the White House. In reality, the sentence of the public prosecutor of the court where the complaint was presented is still missing, but the continuation of the legal action is taken for granted, even if Germany has no connection with the matter, the German courts should declare themselves competent on the facts to carry out proceedings against alleged crimes against humanity, thanks to the conformity of German laws and the principle of international law of international jurisdiction. It must be specified that it will only be an action with no practical effect, given that the refusal, in the event of a conviction, of extradition by Saudi Arabia, which has expressed very clearly its attitude on the matter, condemning, first to the death penalty, then commuted to prison sentences, defendants whose personal details were not provided, which could mean that the sentence was handed down against anyone and only to save appearances for relations with the West; however, the political value of carrying out only a proceeding against one of the highest Saudi officials for violations against humanity takes on a clear meaning of discrediting the crown prince, who disqualifies him in the diplomatic relations that he intends to undertake with other international subjects. Germany can be a sort of leader for Western countries in the protection of crimes against humanity, used in a functional way as a diplomatic action and as a discriminator of international relations; certainly we are at the beginning of a process of this type, of which the implications and repercussions on commercial and economic relations between states will have to be carefully evaluated. In this regard, the attitude taken by the United States must be carefully considered: Washington has made public the report revealing the responsibility of the crown prince, but has not issued any proceedings or sanctions against him, merely expressing its denial from the reports institutions with the prince and considering only the current ruler as legitimate as interlocutor. This is a position dictated by the need to maintain current ties with the Saudi kingdom, based on mutual convenience of a geopolitical nature, however if the crown prince becomes the legitimate, according to Saudi laws, the new sovereign of the country, the problem could not be easy to solve. What appears is that we are trying to manage situations with a new methodology, unfortunately already well present for some time, but the question is whether these practices will be valid at a universal level or whether they will be used only for sporadic cases, according to contingent needs or conveniences of the moment. For example, the most striking case is China, which, despite the current difficulties, has commercial relations with the whole West, but also has certainly guilty behaviors towards the Uighurs, against whom there is a fierce repression that some consider as a real genocide, as well as towards the Hong Kong protest, not to mention the attitude towards Tibet and internal dissent; all material sufficient for a series of trials for crimes against humanity. These considerations apply to many other states, including Russia and Iran, with which the West is trying to reconnect with Trump’s interrupted nuclear relations. The question is very broad and has obstacles that are not easily surmountable, but, at this moment, it is important to underline the beginning of judicial practices, the application of which could represent the future of the fight against crimes against humanity: a difficult path but which to be developed and linked to relations between states, precisely to marginalize and isolate those international subjects responsible for these violations.