The US state department announced that it will deny entry visas to 16 Saudi nationals linked to the murder of dissident Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

Iran Press/America: The U.S. will deny entry visas to 16 Saudi nationals over their roles in the murder of the columnist Jamal Khashoggi, as the administration seeks to sustain pressure on the kingdom to come up with a credible account of his death, the State Department announced on Monday.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the 16 individuals, including Saud al-Qahtani, a senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had already been sanctioned by the U.S. over Khashoggi’s death.

Monday’s action was done under the 2019 State Department appropriations bill, which requires Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to refuse entry to individuals and immediate family members if he has information that they’ve been involved in significant corruption or gross violations of human rights.

"Those individuals and their immediate family members are ineligible for entry into the United States," the State Department said in a statement.

Khashoggi was killed on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Questions have centred on whether the crown prince knew about or ordered the killing, a possibility U.S. intelligence agencies consider likely, and whether the Trump administration will be willing to sacrifice its strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia to hold him accountable.

Earlier this month, the U.S. House voted to direct Trump to withdraw support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen.

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