Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Joubeir on 21 January brushed aside, in a flat but firm voice, criticism from several MEPs over the imprisonment of 2015 Sakharov Prize winner blogger Raif Badawi (see EUROPE 11455/12), several women who drove without a veil and the involvement of the Saudi State in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (see EUROPE 12125/11).
“The Saudi judiciary system is independent. We will not accept anyone questioning this system. We are a sovereign country and not a banana republic”, he told MEPs on the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee. “It is not easy to be taught a lesson about how the justice system should work”, he added. The Minister has asked members to stop criticizing and start working with him on these issues.
Mr al-Joubeir, who had come to present his country's progress in implementing Vision 2030 for Saudi Arabia to become a “tolerant, inclusive and modern” society, had to justify Saudi actions at home, but also abroad, especially in Yemen.
Asked in particular about the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, he compared the situation with the abuses carried out by the Americans in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. “Did Iraq know? Did the Minister of Defence or the President know? They didn't know, and when they found out, they took action and investigated”, he explained. The Minister added that the story was “very painful for Saudi Arabia”, that it was a “mistake” for which the country “will pay the price for many years to come”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)