RIYADH—SoftBank Group Corp.’s Chief Executive Masayoshi Son on Tuesday became the highest profile executive to cancel a speaking engagement at a major investment conference in Saudi Arabia following the death of a journalist who was critical of the Kingdom’s royal family.
In the past two weeks dozens of executives and government officials have canceled plans to attend the conference, nicknamed “Davos in the desert”, after Turkey accused Riyadh of murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
A spokesperson for the conference said Son wouldn’t speak at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh but could still attend the event. SoftBank didn’t respond to requests for comment.
An expanded version of this report appears at WSJ.com
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