TRIAL FOR KHASHOGGI’S MURDER BEGINS

ISTANBUL: A Turkish court put 20 Saudi officials on trial in absentia on Friday for the gruesome killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 when he went there seeking papers for his marriage. The indictment accuses two top Saudi officials, former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s general intelligence Ahmed al-asiri and former royal court adviser Saud al-qahtani, of instigating “premeditated murder with monstrous intent”. It says 18 other defendants were flown to Turkey to kill Khashoggi. The defendants are being tried in absentia.reuters