Boris Johnson given £14k freebie trip to Saudi Arabia by country’s government two weeks before Jamal Khashoggi murder
The ex-Foreign Secretary had all his costs paid during a visit to Saudi Arabia in September
BORIS Johnson took a £14,000 all-expenses-paid freebie trip to Saudi Arabia just 10 days before they killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi, The Sun can reveal.
The three-day trip, including lavish flights, hotels and dinners, was paid for directly by the kingdom’s ministry of foreign affairs.
The former Foreign Secretary flew to Jeddah on September 19 - less than two weeks before the dissident was slain by Saudi agents in Turkey on October 2.
He now faces a furious backlash over his Saudi Arabia junket after the major international backlash over the killing.
Mr Johnson was accused of a "total misjudgement" for supporting the regime despite its history of human rights abuses.
He told the Commons' anti-sleaze register that his trip was for “meetings with regional figures to promote education for women and girls”.
Saudi Arabia are under fire for their global PR efforts to attempt to rebrand as a modern-outward looking state, with the help of key Western allies.
A source close to Mr Johnson said he "visited Saudi Arabia to discuss his long-standing campaign of improving education for women and girls."
The source added: “He has denounced the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and continues to believe that the UK must hold Saudi Arabia to account for this barbaric act."
Mr Johnson wrote that he had visited the country in his newspaper column last week, but failed to mention who had paid for the trip.
He said: "Even though the matter has been raised repeatedly then and since - indeed I raised it myself, again, during a recent visit to see the Crown Prince - we have got nowhere. "
In the column Mr Johnson urged the kingdom to come clean over the incident, despite our "crucial commercial and security partnerships with Saudi Arabia".
He wrote that it "is still true that the Crown Prince has the potential to reform his country – the custodian of the two holiest shrines of Islam – in a way that could be of huge benefit to the Muslim world".
But he insisted the "UK and the US must lead other countries in holding Saudi Arabia properly to account. The body must be produced. The audio tape of the killing said to be held by the Turkish authorities – if it exists – should be made public.
"There can be no suggestion of a stitch-up, or of denying justice to Mr Khashoggi and his family out of deference to Saudi sensibilities.
"The UK should prepare to sanction those involved in carrying out or authorising the brutal killing of this journalist, not least since journalists are now being killed around the world at an unprecedented rate."
Amnesty International today blasted the ex-minister for his trip to Saudi Arabia.
Kate Allen, the charity's UK boss, said: “Boris Johnson’s trip was right in the middle of a vicious human rights crackdown in Saudi Arabia.
“Mr Johnson’s support for women and girls’ education in the Middle East is welcome, but he and others must speak out publicly about how Saudi Arabia systematically denies women their basic human rights.
“Mr Johnson has lavished praise on the Saudi Crown Prince as a supposed reformer, which is a total misjudgement.”
Labour MP Jess Phillips added: "Recently I was asked if a company with links to Saudi could sponsor an event I was involved with - I'm not Boris Johnson so I said no."
Saudi Arabia has for years sought to schmooze Western politicians and companies by hosting junkets and conference to boost the kingdom's image.
Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman was until recently praised by many leading Western figures as a reformer thanks to his anti-corruption efforts and law change allowing women to drive for the first time.
But Saudi Arabia has now become a pariah state once more following the brutal murder of Khashoggi, who was apparently strangled and then dismembered when he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to fill out some paperwork.
The Sun can also reveal Mr Johnson has solicited a £50,000 donation from a controversial hedge fund boss to pay for his entourage since quitting the Cabinet in July.
Jon Wood set up SRM Global, a major investor in Northern Rock before the financial crash, to pay for his “office and staffing costs".
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