Rogue kingdom - Saudi Arabia critic murdered?

It may hard to imagine Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a champion of human rights, yet in the case of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, that is what he has become.

Khashoggi, a critic of his country’s rulers who fled his homeland in fear, went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul

last week. He has not been seen since. It is feared, though not established, that he was murdered by Saudi officials in Turkey. President Erdogan has demanded that the Saudis prove Khashoggi left the meeting unimpeded.

Saudi Arabia beheaded 48 people in the first four months of this year and behaves as if this was the year AD1467. These differences go far beyond the cultural and define Saudi Arabia as an anachronistic, regressive and brutal regime.

The EU should review its relationship with the murderous kingdom. A good first step would be for our Department of Foreign Affairs to ask the Saudi officials in Dublin to explain where Khashoggi might be.

A phonecall might be best.