Illustration by Paul Ryding for HuffPost

Saudi government officials killed Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi and then cut up his body with a bone saw, leaving his remains in a still unknown location, a little over a year ago. Their boss, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, will soon host some of the richest and most powerful people in the world to talk about how great his country is at an event dubbed Davos in the Desert, and he can still count President Donald Trump as a friend, even after the CIA concluded that he likely ordered the murder.

Despite global uproar last year, justice has been at best delayed in the Khashoggi case. Though little progress has been made until now, it does not have to remain this way, Khashoggis fiance at the time of his death, Hatice Cengiz, wrote in the Post in late September. I continue to hope the United States decides to stand for what is right. In the meantime, I will continue seeking justice for Jamal and hope that people and governments the world over will join me in my quest.

Saudi Arabia and its de facto ruler, the prince colloquially known as MBS, have used that borrowed time to shore up their image on the world stage. High-profile backing from Trump has helped.

But its the less flashy work that has counted even more. Its people like the ones below lets call them the Saudi Seven whom Cengiz and human rights groups will have to confront if theres any hope for accountability. Khashoggis murder goes beyond religion, language or geography, she wrote. It is a matter of humanity. These are the people who have made it possible so far for Saudi Arabia to remain a member of the international community in relatively good standing instead of a government shunned for the brutal murder, within another countrys borders, of a citizen who sought refuge abroad.

The Lobbyist: Brad Klapper, At Qorvis

On April 18, 2018, Brad Klapper ended a career of more than a decade in journalism and became a paid agent for the government of Saudi Arabia.

Klapper left his job as a national security editor at The Associated Press to become a senior vice president for media relations at the lobbying firm Qorvis, which the Saudis hired after 15 of their citizens helped to kill more than 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. Within months, Klapper was helping the Saudis respond to their biggest public relations problem since the 9/11 attacks: the murder of a fellow journalist, Khashoggi.

Qorvis is likely the most important node in Saudi Arabias sprawling network of influence in the United States. The firm stuck with the kingdom even as, particularly following the Khashoggi killing, similar companies have said they will no longer represent Riyadh, and its been rewarded for it. The company earned close to $19 million from the Saudis in the six months after the murder, an amount lobbying expert Ben Freeman of the Center for International Policy said is more than half of what the Saudis normally spend across all their agents in a whole year. Qorvis also gained three new contracts linked to Saudi government money in the spring of 2019.

At a challenging time for the company and its client, Klapper is a rare and valuable asset: Someone who influential journalists, lawmakers and government officials know from long experience, which makes them likely to treat outreach from him differently than that from other Saudi mouthpieces. He spent 13 years at the outlet that revealed the Saudis and Qorvis were secretly paying U.S. veterans to lobby against a bill supported by the families of 9/11 victims, after all.

The Saudis have amassed quite the collection of folks whove gone through the revolving door in all the places of power in D.C., Freeman said. Having folks like that on your payroll really opens a lot of doors that wouldnt be open for the Saudis and can really transcend having a toxic reputation which I think the Saudis do now.

Former elected officials seeking roles like Klappers have to wait one year before they can lobby their erstwhile colleagues, a period during which the relationship can adjust to a new normal. There arent similar regulations for the press though the ethical dilemmas for reporters leaving the industry are clear, especially when it comes to working for a client accused of orchestrating the murder of a Washington Post employee.

If youre a journalist and youre seen as somebody whos working for a reputable outlet and doing objective work and you cross over to work for a foreign dictatorship doing work that is not objective, I think its worth having a cooling-off period so people know what youre doing: this is somebody whos working to push a Saudi agenda, Freeman said.

Klapper and Qorvis did not respond to requests for comment.

The Banker: John Flint, Formerly At HSBC

The story about Saudi Arabia that the crown prince wants the world to focus on has little to do with human rights or journalists. Its that the kingdom is trying, he would say successfully, to make its economy less reliant on selling oil and therefore better prepared for the future. This narrative is aimed at winning investment from the worlds wealthiest people and it relies heavily on institutions they trust. Chief among the Saudis allies in the world of global finance is HSBC, the British bank, and at the center of its support to the kingdom over the past year is a man named John Flint.

HSBC has arguably become Saudi Arabias most important bank as the kingdom tries to turn the page on the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, The Wall Street Journal reported in April . The story noted that the bank is Saudi Arabias biggest foreign investor in financial services and some of its former employees now hold powerful jobs in the government.

Flint was HSBCs chief executive until this past August. He followed the lead of other top bankers in skipping a marquee conference in Saudi Arabia soon after Khashoggis murder. But he was clear that he didnt want the relationship to end: I understand the emotion around the story but it is very difficult to think about disengaging from Saudi Arabia, given its importance to global energy markets, Flint said weeks after the murder. He returned to Saudi Arabia in April and publicly praised the kingdoms financial policies.

Keeping HSBC and other powerful banks like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup close helps MBS argue all is well and his country and his economy arent going to be derailed by one pesky assassination. And the benefits flow both ways: those companies ensure theyre well-positioned to compete for the potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in fees they could earn off Saudi maneuvers like privatizing a segment of the state-owned oil company Aramco.

So the relationship persists, even as officials like Flint come and go, a vital bulwark against the campaign to isolate the kingdom over its atrocities.

Our participation reflects 70 years presence in Saudi Arabia, Rob Sherman, a spokesman for HSBC, wrote in an email to HuffPost. Through our shareholding in [the Saudi British Bank] and our partnership in HSBC Saudi Arabia, we are the biggest international bank, employing more than 4,000 staff to support our customers as the country implements its economic reform and social development agenda.

HuffPost attempts to contact Flint were unsuccessful.

The Evangelical: Joel Rosenberg, Author

On Sept. 10, MBS sat down with a nine-member Christian delegation that included Johnnie Moore of Trumps evangelical advisory board and the U.S. government commission on religious freedom; Christian media executive Wayne Pederson; and former GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kenneth Blackwell. He had met with a similar group within the year. A large portion of the credit, it appeared, went to the headliner: Joel Rosenberg, a prolific author writing primarily for a Christian readership who runs an Israel-focused nonprofit called the Joshua Fund.

In a press release, Rosenberg said the group was stunned to hear only two American elected officials had visited the kingdom in the past year and called out MBSs critics. While there are challenges in the U.S.-Saudi relationship, we urge more congressional leadership to come here, see the sweeping and positive reforms that the crown prince is making, and ask him candid questions directly, rather than sniping at him from Washington. he said.

Khashoggi went unmentioned in the statement. So did the Saudis brutal military campaign in Yemen .