Five sentenced to death over journalist’s killing
SAUDI ARABIA has sentenced five people to death for the killing of Washington Post columnist and Saudi royal family critic Jamal Khashoggi.
The writer was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year.
The Riyadh criminal court found another three people guilty of covering up the crime.
They were sentenced for a combined 24 years in prison, according to a statement read by the Saudi attorney general’s office on state TV.
In total, 11 people had been on trial in Saudi Arabia for the killing, but the government has not made their names public.
All can appeal against the preliminary verdicts.
A handful of diplomats, including from Turkey, as well as members of Mr Khashoggi’s family were allowed to attend the nine court sessions, although independent media were barred.
Mr Khashoggi, who was a resident of the US, had walked into his country’s consulate on October 2, 2018 for a scheduled appointment to pick up documents that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz.
He never walked out and his body has not been found.
A team of 15 Saudi agents were flown specifically to Turkey to meet
Mr Khashoggi that day inside the consulate.
They included a forensic doctor, intelligence and security officers and individuals who worked for the office of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to an independent UN probe.
His death stunned Saudi Arabia’s
Western allies and immediately raised questions about how the high-level operation could have been carried out without the knowledge of Prince Mohammed.
The kingdom insists the crown prince had nothing to do with the killing.
In an interview in September with CBS’ 60 Minutes, Prince Mohammed said: “I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia.”
But he reiterated that he had no knowledge of the operation because he could not keep such close track of the country’s millions of employees.
Meanwhile, Turkey, a rival of Saudi Arabia, has used the killing on its soil to pressure the kingdom.
Turkey, which had demanded the suspects be tried there, apparently had the Saudi Consulate bugged and has shared audio of the killing with the CIA, among a handful of others.
Saudi Arabia initially offered multiple shifting accounts about Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance.
As international pressure mounted due to Turkish leaks, the kingdom eventually settled on the explanation that he was killed by rogue officials in a brawl.