On Tuesday, A New York judge ordered US intelligence agencies to acknowledge they possess a tape recording of the 2018 murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in a ruling hailed by rights activists.
The judge also instructed the Central Intelligence Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to explain why they are withholding the tape and a CIA report on the gruesome killing.
The CIA concluded that the young royal had been responsible for the killing, straining relations between the United States where Khashoggi lived and Riyadh.
The Open Society Justice Initiative, founded by billionaire George Soros, filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information act seeking access to intelligence agency records related to the assassination.
The CIA and ODNI rejected their request and failed to even confirm the existence of the documents, citing national security reasons.
But federal Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the US government Tuesday to produce within two weeks a Vaughn index describing the documents it is withholding and providing legal justification for their non-disclosure.
The ruling does not order the disclosure of the documents but the Open Society Justice Initiative described the order as a crucial victory in addressing the Trump administration’s shameful cover-up of the murder.
