SAUDI SENTENCES 8 TO PRISON IN FINAL KHASHOGGI MURDER RULING

RIYADH: A Saudi Arabian court on Monday jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years for the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, four months after his family forgave his killers and enabled five death sentences to be set aside.

Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, where he had gone to obtain documents for his impending wedding.

His body was reportedly dismembered and removed from the building, and his remains have not been found. The murder caused a global uproar and tarnished the reformist image of Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler.

On Monday, five people were sent to 20 years in prison, one person got 10 years and two others seven years. None of the defendants were named.

Hatice Cengiz, the Turkish fiancee of Khashoggi, branded the ruling overturning five death sentences a farce. “The ruling handed down today in Saudi Arabia again makes a complete mockery of justice. The international community will not accept this farce,” she said in a tweet.

A UN expert on Monday dismissed the verdict, decrying that top officials who allegedly ordered the killing walked free. “The Saudi prosecutor performed one more act today in this parody of justice. But these verdicts carry no legal or moral legitimacy,” UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard tweeted.