Fix is in as Saudi court
sentences five others to death for strangling journalist, cutting body into
pieces
ANUJ
CHOPRA, RIYADH
Five people have been
sentenced to death over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but two top
figures investigated over the killing have been exonerated, Saudi Arabia’s
public prosecutor said Monday.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post
contributor, was murdered in October last year in what Riyadh called a “rogue”
operation, tipping the kingdom into one of its worst diplomatic crises and
ruining the reputation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The 59-year-old Saudi
insider-turned-critic was strangled and his body cut into pieces by a 15-man
Saudi squad inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, according to Turkish
officials. His remains have not been found.
“We found that Khashoggi’s
murder was not premeditated,” Saudi deputy general prosecutor Shalaan al-Shalaan
told a press conference.
Saudi prosecutors had said
deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri oversaw Khashoggi’s killing and that
he was advised by the royal court’s media czar Saud al-Qahtani.
However, Qahtani was
investigated but not indicted “due to insufficient evidence” and Assiri was
investigated and charged but eventually acquitted on the same grounds, the
prosecutor said in a statement.
Both aides were part of Prince
Mohammed’s tight-knit inner circle and were formally sacked over the killing,
but only Assiri appeared in the court hearings, according to Western sources.
Ringleader?
Qahtani, who led fiery social
media campaigns against critics of the kingdom and was seen as a conduit to the
crown prince, has not appeared publicly since the murder and his whereabouts
are the subject of fevered speculation.
Maher Mutreb, an intelligence
operative who frequently traveled with the crown prince on foreign tours,
forensic expert Salah al-Tubaigy and Fahad al-Balawi, a member of the Saudi
royal guard, were among the 11 on trial, sources have told AFP.
It was unclear if they were
among those who were sentenced to death.
The sources said that many of
those accused defended themselves in court by saying they were carrying out
orders by Assiri, describing him as the “ringleader” of the operation.
According to the prosecutor’s
statement, of the 11 unnamed individuals indicted in the case, five were
sentenced to death, three face jail terms totaling 24 years, and the others
were acquitted.
The Riyadh court hearing the
case held a total of nine sessions attended by representatives of the
international community as well as Khashoggi’s family, it said.
The Khashoggi murder rattled
the world at a time when Saudi Arabia and its de facto leader, Prince Mohammed,
were pushing an aggressive public relations campaign to rebrand the
ultraconservative kingdom as a modern state.
The United Nations and human
rights groups have called for an independent investigation into the killing.
– AFP
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