President of the Human Rights Commission of Saudi Arabia, Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, in Geneva on November 5, 2018.

:: President of Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission (HRC), Dr. Bandar al-Aiban, has said the Kingdom brought perpetrators of Khashoggi murder to justice and they have attended three hearings with their lawyers.

Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council, Dr. al-Aiban said “we are horrified at Khashoggi killing” and that it was a “heinous crime” and an “unfortunate accident”.

Dr. al-Aiban also said that the Kingdom rejects calls to “internationalize” the investigation into Khashoggi killing as amounting to interference in domestic affairs.

Saudi Arabia has accepted as many as 453 human rights recommendations, either full or in part, during the past 10 years. In a report published on its Twitter account on Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) detailed the Kingdom’s cooperation with the UN mechanisms.

It noted that in 2009, the Council provided 70 recommendations, of which 52 were accepted by the Kingdom. In 2013, it accepted 151 out of 225 recommendations. In 2018, the number of accepted recommendations was 182 out of a total of 258 recommendations.