died violently whilst inside the consulate. Saudi authorities never arrested the most senior officials implicated in Khashoggi’s killing, which included Saud al-Qahtani, the former royal court adviser, and Ahmed al-Assiri, the deputy intelligence chief. Instead, the authorities merely announced their resignations. A 2018 US intelligence report concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder. A Saudi court sentenced eight lower-level operatives found responsible for the murder to prison terms of 7 to 20 years in a trial that lacked transparency. There were also allegations that Egyptian officials provided training to Saudi Arabia’s “Tiger Team,” the group found responsible for Khashoggi’s murder. Unlawful Removals: Expulsions, Extraditions and Deportations Governments also engage in transnational repression by seeking the unlawful return of one of their nationals. They work through other states to have the person forcibly returned or “removed” either without a formal legal process or through a legal process, such as extradition or deportation. Removal physically places people who have fled their own countries back into the hands of the government they tried to escape. Extradition is the process of one state surrendering to another state, at its request, a person accused or convicted of a criminal offense committed against the laws of the requesting state.2 Deportation is when the authorities of the host country physically remove a person and return them to their country of origin or to a third country. While deportations are carried out by the host country, typically pursuant to the host country’s immigration laws, they sometimes occur as a result of requests or pressure by a person’s country of origin. Governments are lawfully empowered to remove individuals from their territory for legitimate reasons under international law. However, expulsions, extraditions, and deportations can constitute transnational repression when the individual’s country of origin has sought the removal for illegitimate reasons, or when the removal violates international law. For example, a government that seeks an extradition to silence a critic or to punish them for legitimate political activism is committing transnational repression. Further, removals are 2 See Terlinden v. Ames, US Supreme Court, Case No. 475, Judgment February 24, 1902; and UNODC, Manual on Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition, 2012, https://www.unodc.org/documents/organizedcrime/Publications/Mutual_Legal_Assistance_Ebook_E.pdf. 7 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | FEBRUARY 2024