Turkish prosecutor asks to halt trial for the murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi
A Turkish prosecutor has moved to end the trial of the killers of Jamal Khashoggi nearly four years after aides to Saudi Arabia’a Crown Prince murdered and dismembered the dissident in the Kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, shelving the chance of convictions as Ankara seeks to mend ties with Riyadh.
The move has been broadly seen as a political offering ahead of a mooted visit by Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Saudi Arabia in search of renewed trade and investment to boost Ankara’s ailing economy.
The prosecutor leading the case asked an Istanbul court on Thursday for the cases of the 26 suspects to be handed over to Riyadh and claimed there was little point in pursuing a trial in absentia. The request overturned three years of trials and hearings that were prefaced on none of the suspects being present.
The gruesome killing of Khashoggi had led to an extraordinary standoff between both regional powers and a plummet in the global standing of Saudi Arabia’a de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, who was widely accused of ordering the assassination.
In the years since, Turkey had mostly maintained a hardline stance against Riyadh and demanded justice for Khashoggi as well as unspecified repatriations. It had also formed a central pillar of an axis that included Qatar and the remnants of Egypt’s ousted Muslim Brotherhood, up against Riyadh, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
However, Erdogan has been looking to restore connections with all three rivals and earlier this year visited Abu Dhabi, ending a standoff that had predated Khasoggi’s murder. As well as a visit to Riyadh, the veteran leader is also reported to be seeking a rapprochement with Egypt.
Khashoggi’s former fiance, Hatice Cengiz, took to Twitter to confirm the Turkish move.
“The prosecutor asked, according to the Saudi demand, for the transfer of the file to Saudi Arabia and the finalisation of it in Turkey,” she said.
On 2 October 2018, Cengiz had waited outside the Saudi consulate as her 59-year-old fiance entered the building to arrange marriage paperwork. Listening devices planted by Turkish intelligence recorded Khashoggi being ambushed once inside by security officials who strangled, then dissected him. His remains have never been found, however intelligence offices in Turkey and the US believed his body parts were driven to the nearby Consul General’s residence and cooked in an outdoor oven.
The CIA found it was likely that Prince Mohammed had ordered the killing. The then US president, Donald Trump, gave cover for the young Crown Prince and later boasted: “I saved his ass.”
Outrage over the assassination has barely subsided, with Prince Mohammed boycotted by the Biden administration until a global oil crisis in recent weeks. The White House has however denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that Prince Mohammed refused to take a call from the US president.
Under immense pressure in the aftermath of the killing, Prince Mohammed accepted responsibility on behalf of the Saudi state, but denied playing a personal role.
Eight members of the hit squad were sentenced to long terms by a Saudi court, however the Guardian revealed last year that some of the most senior members have been sighted in a state security compound in Riyadh. The Guardian also reported that the hit squad’s alleged leader, Saud al-Qahtani, was once again working closely with the Royal Court after being in enforced hiding for two years.
Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, condemned the court decision. “The Turkish prosecutor has worked on this investigation and prosecution for more than three years,” she said. “He knows very well that justice cannot be delivered by a Saudi Court; that impunity will prevail. The Saudi system failed again and again to cooperate with the Turkish prosecutor.
“If the prosecutor request is granted, then Turkey will knowingly be sending the case to a country where justice simply cannot be delivered. Jamal Khashoggi’s Saudi state murder and the search for justice has been – the minute he stepped into the Saudi consulate – defined by realpolitik, political interests, and geopolitical considerations.”