Saudi to execute five over murder of rebel journalist
But 3 agents close to Crown Prince cleared
FIVE people have been sentenced to death over the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.
Three others have been jailed for 24 years each – but a further three, who are close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, were cleared.
Human rights organisation Amnesty called the verdict a “whitewash” that “brings neither justice nor the truth”.
Columnist Mr MURDER Khashoggi
&, right, Crown Prince
Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, last year.
The dissident had gone to collect documents to let him wed his Turkish fiancee.
The hit by a team of Saudi agents is widely suspected to have been ordered by bin Salman after Khashoggi had criticised the ruler several newspaper articles.
The names of the 11 defendants have not been made public and the trials were carried out in Saudi Arabia in near-total secrecy.
Several of the Saudi agents worked directly for bin Salman, but the kingdom denies he knew of the plan. Yasin Aktay, a member of Turkey’s ruling party, said: “The prosecutor sentenced five hitmen to death but did not touch those who were behind the five.” in
Chris Dyson
HARD-UP kids queue up outside a primary school yesterday after it opened to serve 800 free Christmas dinners and hand out presents.
Chris Dyson, headteacher at Parklands Primary School in Leeds, West Yorks, was “heartbroken” to discover some children had never met Santa Claus or received gifts.
He said: “It’s every child’s right to see Santa, and I thought if you can’t go to see him, I’ll bring him to you.”
Staff served meals to 328 kids and their families in an area ranked in the top 1% in England for deprivation.
Staff served up the meals