Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman | Fethi Belaid/AFP via Getty Images ‘Credible evidence’ Saudi crown prince liable for Khashoggi murder: UN expert The rapporteur investigating the killing recommends the UN launch a criminal investigation.

There is "credible evidence" that Saudi Arabia's crown prince and other high-level officials are liable for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a United Nations expert said in a report released Wednesday.

The 101-page report by Agnès Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, calls on the U.N. secretary-general to initiate a follow-up criminal investigation into the killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October.

"There is credible evidence warranting further investigation of high-level Saudi Officials’ individual liability, including the Crown Prince’s," Callamard wrote.

Riyadh maintains that Khashoggi's death was caused by a "rogue" operation, but Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's crown prince and de facto ruler, has long been suspected of ordering the journalist's murder. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency reached the same conclusion in November.

"No conclusion is made as to guilt,” Callamard wrote in her report, referring to bin Salman — also known as MBS — and high-level government officials such as former top advisor Saud al-Qahtani. "The only conclusion made is that there is credible evidence meriting further investigation, by a proper authority, as to whether the threshold of criminal responsibility has been met."

But the report, the result of a five-month investigation, continued: "Evidence points to the 15-person mission to execute Mr. Khashoggi requiring significant government coordination, resources and finances."

Saudi Arabia has put 11 suspects on trial over the killing and is seeking the death penalty for five of them. Callamard in her report said that the closed-doors trial failed to meet international procedural and substantive standards, calling for it to be suspended.