20 Saudis go on trial for Khashoggi murder

ISTANBUL >> Turkey opened a trial into the death of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul on Friday, accusing 20 Saudi citizens in absentia, in a case that friends and human rights officials welcomed as an important step in advancing the search for justice in his killing.

None of the accused were present for the trial — Saudi Arabia has declined to extradite them — and it was unclear whether the court could legally pursue the case without defendants.

Nonetheless, the start of the proceedings was seen as a sign that Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan — who personally knew Khashoggi and was outraged the killing took place in Istanbul — are determined to pursue those responsible and even implicate the Saudi kingdom’s day-to-day ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Khashoggi was killed when he visited the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, to obtain papers that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz. He never emerged from the meeting. His remains have never been found.

Khashoggi, 59, a Saudi dissident, fled the kingdom and wrote columns for The Washington Post that were critical of his country’s leadership.

The Saudi government has prosecuted 11 men for carrying out the killing, and sentenced five of them to death in December, but did not find any senior officials responsible. The Turkish indictment accuses 18 men of carrying out murder with monstrous intent and inflicting grave torment.

Two others, both close aides to Crown Prince Mohammed — Ahmed al-Asiri, the former deputy head of Saudi general intelligence; and Saud al-Qahtani, a former adviser to the crown prince — were indicted on incitement to murder with monstrous intent and inflicting grave torment.

Cengiz named a consulate employee called Ekrem Sultan as the person who had called Khashoggi to attend a meeting Oct. 2.

“They summoned him with great betrayal and trickery,” she said.