The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (commonly referred to as MBS), is scheduled to visit Malaysia from Feb. 17 to 18.

According to Malaysian media The Star, he will be meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, as part of his first trip to Southeast Asia.

The meeting in Malaysia comes as part of the Crown Prince's wider tour of Asia, which also includes Pakistan, India, Indonesia and China.

Entourage of over 1,000 people expected

American-based media outlet Al-Monitor highlighted that MBS will be accompanied by an entourage of around 1,100 people for his trip.

With the entourage consisting of many Saudi business leaders, Al-Monitor reported that the trip is expected to focus on drawing foreign investors from Asia to Saudi Arabia, as well to boost the Crown Prince's image.

AM added that this was largely due to the wariness of Western investors in doing business with the Crown Prince, as a result of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

MBS himself is widely believed to have orchestrated the murder.

What was the murder of Jamal Khashoggi about?

An outspoken self-exiled critic of the Saudi government, Khashoggi vanished on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, to pick up papers for his upcoming marriage, the Financial Times reported.

Initially, Saudi Arabia denied knowledge of Khashoggi's whereabouts, insisting he had left the building safely, until a series of information feeds to the international media on the grisly details of the murder by Turkey sparked international outrage.

Saudi Arabia was eventually forced to admit that Khashoggi had died in the consulate.

According to the New York Times, the Turkish authorities stated that Khashoggi had been tortured, with his fingers severed, and his body dismembered after death.

Aljazeera reported that Khashoggi had supposedly died of suffocation, with a plastic bag over his head.

Reuters added that his remains are believed by the Turkish police to have since been burnt.

Amidst the growing chorus of international condemnation, Mahathir joined in as well, The Malay Mail reported.

Mahathir: Khashoggi's killing was "terrible cruelty"

On Oct. 22, 2018, Mahathir condemned the murder of Khashoggi as "terrible cruelty" and added that Malaysia does not support the killing of government critics.

The Malay Mail quoted Mahathir as stating:

"This is a form of terrible cruelty, where to us it is unacceptable. We all have people we do not like, but we cannot be going around and killing them if we don’t like them."

The New Straits Times reported that Mahathir said it was fortunate Malaysia did not follow the system of Saudi Arabia:

"I used to be hated my many, and if we have the same system like Saudi Arabia’s, I probably won’t be here talking to you today."

Top image collage from MBS Facebook and Mahathir Facebook

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