KHASHOGGI’S SONS FORGIVE KILLERS
NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO PARDON, SAYS JOURNALIST’S FIANCEE
DUBAI: The family of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi announced Friday they have forgiven his Saudi killers, giving legal reprieve to the five government agents convicted of his murder who’d been sentenced to execution.
But his The Turkish fiancee said “no one” had the right to pardon his murderers.
Khashoggi - a royal family insider turned critic - was killed and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
“We, the sons of the martyr Jamal Khashoggi, announce that we forgive those who killed our father as we seek reward from God Almighty,” wrote one of his sons, Salah Khashoggi, on
Twitter. Salah Khashoggi, who lives in Saudi Arabia and has received financial compensation from the royal court over the killing, explained that forgiveness was extended to the killers during the last nights of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan in line with Islamic tradition to offer pardons in cases allowed by Islamic law.
The announcement was largely expected because the trial in Saudi Arabia left the door open for reprieve by ruling in December that the killing was not premeditated. That finding was in line with the Saudi government’s official explanation of Khashoggi’s slaying.
Saudi media outlet Arab News said the announcement made by Khashoggi’s sons spares the convicted killers from execution, but does not mean they will go unpunished.
“His ambush and heinous murder does not have a statute of limitations and no one has the right to pardon his killers. I and others will not stop until we get #JusticeForJamal,” Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz tweeted.