French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks in Paris on Thursday, defying criticism that the invitation is deeply inappropriate barely four years after the murder by Saudi agents of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, reports FRANCE 24.
The meeting will be seen as the latest step in the readmission of the de-facto ruler of the kingdom into the international fold, after US President Joe Biden met the man universally known as MBS earlier this month.
The topics set to loom over the meeting include energy supply as concern grows over possible power shortages due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as reining in the nuclear programme of Riyadh's top regional foe Iran.
MBS — who is portrayed at home as a champion of social and economic reform but seen by critics as a murderous tyrant — arrives in France fresh from a trip to Greece to discuss energy ties.
"I feel profoundly troubled by the visit, because of what it means for our world and what it means for Jamal [Khashoggi] and people like him," Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard told AFP, describing MBS as a man who "does not tolerate any dissent".
The fiancée of the late Khashoggi on Thursday expressed outrage at the visit. "I am scandalised and outraged that Emmanuel Macron is receiving with all the honours the executioner of my fiancee, Jamal Khashoggi," Hatice Cengiz told AFP.
The visits mark MBS' first trip to the EU since the murder of Khashoggi by Saudi agents at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in 2018, a crime that a UN probe described as an "extrajudicial killing for which Saudi Arabia is responsible".
It also said there was "credible evidence" warranting further investigation of the individual liability of high-level Saudi officials, including MBS.
US intelligence agencies determined that MBS had "approved" the operation that led to Khashoggi's death, though Riyadh denies this, blaming rogue operatives.
Three rights groups, including the Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) group created by Khashoggi, filed a criminal complaint in Paris on Thursday accusing MBS of being an accomplice to the crime.
The killing drew outrage not just over the elimination of a prominent critic of the Saudi regime, but also for the manner in which it was carried out. Khashoggi was lured into the Saudi consulate on October 2, 2018, strangled and dismembered, reportedly with a bonesaw.