Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi
Istanbul … News Time
Turkish prosecutors have regularly charged 20 people, including two close associates of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Irfan Fidan, chief of the Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul, reports the British website “The Guardian”That in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 at the Saudi embassy in Turkey former Saudi royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani and deputy head of the intelligence agency Ahmed al-Asiri are among those charged. In his statement, he said that with the help of three intelligence officers, 15 people arrived in Istanbul where they carried out the orders of the two men.
Remember that in October 2018, when news of the suspected role of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was revealed after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. After that, relations with Saudi Arabia’s allies deteriorated, in which the United States was the leader. The US president had threatened Saudi Arabia with dire consequences, after which the relations between the two allies came to normal over the promise of a transparent investigation into the murder of Saudi crown prince Jamal Khashoggi. Several western governments, including the CIA, came to the conclusion that the Saudi crown prince ordered the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia, however, rejected the news and called it a lie. The Turkish prosecutor said without giving the date of the final hearing that the warrants for arrest of the accused were issued but the trial would start despite absence in the country. Turkey is in favor of life imprisonment for all 20 accused.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, refused to hand over its citizens to Turkey for trial. Last December, a Saudi court sentenced five unidentified men to death for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, while the had no influence on the people close to crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. During a press conference in Riyadh, the public prosecutor announced the sentences and said that the other three men had been sentenced to a total of 24 years in prison. The Saudi prosecutor’s statement said that the court had charged 11 persons, three of whom were acquitted. The court ordered the death sentence of five people involved in the murder of the victim, while three people were sentenced to a total of 24 years in prison for concealing murder and violating the law.
The statement said 31 people were included in the investigation of the case, out of which 21 were arrested. However, 10 people were summoned only for questioning because the court had no right to detain them. Former Saudi royal court adviser and consultant Saud al-Qahtani (Saud al-Qahtani) was also accused in the case of complete murder. As a result, they faced interrogation but were acquitted if they could not be charged. In addition, the court acquitted former deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Asiri on the basis of insufficient evidence.
The murder of Jamal Khashoggi: When did it happen?
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was a staunch critic of the actions of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been based in the United States since 2017. However, on October 2, 2018, the world media headlines when he entered the Saudi Arabian Consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul but did not return, later, it was revealed that they had been killed in the consulate. Turkish government responds to Turkish disappearance, calls Saudi Foreign Minister in Istanbul Foreign Ministry this led to tensions in the relations between the two countries. Turkish authorities have told the media that they believe that Saudi journalist and Saudi state critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate. The Saudi ambassador offered full support to the investigation, expressing ignorance about the journalist’s disappearance. On October 12, 2018, it was reported that five royal family members were missing from last week over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Then a friend of Jamal Khashoggi claimed that the Saudi journalist knew a lot about the royal family’s corruption and relations with their terrorists.
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also met directly with Saudi ruler King Salman bin Abdulaziz on the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. On October 17, a new revelation came out about the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi and he was said to have been subjected to torture and cut to pieces. Meanwhile, on October 20, Saudi Arabia officially admitted that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed during a dispute inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. In addition, it was concluded by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States (CIA) that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated by the powerful Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman.
In December, the US Senate passed a resolution declaring Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In which the Saudi government was called to hold those responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. During the first trial of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Riyadh’s court last January, the Attorney General demanded the death sentence of five of the 11 alleged killers. The UN, however, called the trial “inadequate” and said the transparency of the trial could not be assessed in this way.
Later in April 2019, sources revealed that the 11 people who are going to trial in the murder case of Jamal Khashoggi do not include the Saudi Crown Prince’s royal adviser Saud al-Qahtani. The UN has formed a three-member team to investigate the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, with Agnes Calmard, the head of the team, secretly hearing the suspects arrested for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi demanding an open trial against international standards. Later in June, the UN said in a research report that evidence shows that Saudi Arabia’s was responsible for the assassination of crown prince Mohammad bin Salman and other senior Saudi official journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Agnès Callamard reportedly demanded that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman be investigated in connection with the murder. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia also revealed to the four journalists of the deceased journalist Jamal Khashoggi ‘blood flow’ worth millions of dollars and millions of dollars on a monthly basis. However, Jamal Khashoggi’s family denied the Saudi administration’s settlement through negotiations outside the court.
