Rights group urges Argentina to prosecute Saudi crown prince for war crimes, Khashoggi murder

A rights group has called on Argentina to charge Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince with war crimes and human rights violations ahead of a G-20 summit in Buenos Aires.

Human Rights Watch said on Monday it has asked Argentina's government to investigate Mohammed bin Salman for his role in the brutal war in Yemen, and possible complicity in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"Argentine prosecutorial authorities should scrutinise Mohammed bin Salman's role in possible war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in Yemen," the New York-based watchdog said.

"The Saudi government under the authority of the crown prince has also been implicated in serious allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of Saudi citizens."

"Various reports also tie Mohammed bin Salman to the extrajudicial execution and possible torture of Jamal Khashoggi," it added.

Argentina's media have reported, citing judiciary sources, that it will be "very difficult" to charge the crown prince.

Prince Mohammed is visiting close allies in the Middle East before attending the Group of 20 summit in Argentina on 30 November, in his first foreign tour since the killing of Khashoggi.

The Saudi journalist was a critic of the crown prince, and strangled and dismembered by a team of 15 Saudi agents after he went into Riyadh's Istanbul consulate on 2 October.

A Saudi-led military intervention in neighbouring Yemen has triggered what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis, killing thousands of civilians.

Saudi Arabia has been put under intense international pressure over the murder of Khashoggi and its brutal military campaign in Yemen.

Protests are planned in Tunisia against the planned visit by the Saudi de-facto ruler.

"No to the desecration of Tunisia, country of the revolution" read a large banner displayed at the National Union of Tunisian Journalists, depicting a man in traditional Saudi dress holding a chainsaw with his back to the camera.

Bin Salman has already been to the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt ahead of the visit to Tunisia later on Tuesday.