U.S. President Donald Trump said when they met Saturday, he raised the subject of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“I did mention it to him very strongly,” Trump said. “That was a bad event.”
Trump said the prince told him that at least 13 individuals are being prosecuted for murder, which the president said was a “horrible” incident.
“A lot of people are being prosecuted and they are taking it very seriously,” Trump said.
It was said that Trump’s remarks came during a press conference at the 20 (G-20) summit meeting in Japan.
The president said that he was “extremely angry and very unhappy” about Khashoggi’s killing, but claimed that “nobody has directly pointed a finger” at bin Salman.
The CIA and a UN report involved bin Salman in the assassination of Khashoggi, accusing him of authorizing the assassination.
Khashoggi, a columnist from the Washington Post who criticized bin Salman and the Saudi government, was murdered in October by Saudi operatives after entering the Istanbul Saudi Consulate.
While Riyadh originally claimed ignorance of the killing, the country’s attorney general later backtracked, recognizing the killing of Khashoggi and premeditating the murder.
