GENEVA – Three dozen countries, including all 28 EU members, called on Saudi Arabia on Thursday to release 10 activists and cooperate with a U.N.-led investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at its Istanbul consulate.
It was the first rebuke of the kingdom at the U.N. Human Rights Council since it was set up in 2006, and came amid growing international concern about alleged Saudi violations of basic freedoms such as freedom of expression.
“It is a success for Europe to be united on this,” an envoy of an EU country told Reuters.
The unprecedented joint statement, also backed by Canada and Australia but not the United States, was read out by Harald Aspelund, Iceland’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. (Reuters)
