4 yıl önce

Turkey files second indictment against six Khashoggi murder suspects

Two Saudi consulate employees, who were part of the team that killed Khashoggi, are facing charges that carry aggravated life sentences with no possibility of early release.

Reuters

A demonstrator holds a poster with a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. October 25, 2018.

Turkish prosecutors have prepared a second indictment against six Saudi officials in connection with the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

Two of the suspects are facing charges that carry aggravated life jail sentences. Charges against the other four suspects carry up to five years in prison.

The 2018 murder

Khashoggi, a journalist and critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, where he had gone to obtain documents for his impending wedding.

His body was reportedly dismembered and removed from the building and his remains have not been found still.

Riyadh offered conflicting narratives to explain Khashoggi's disappearance before acknowledging he was murdered in the diplomatic building in a "rogue operation".

The six suspects

The prosecutor has requested the suspects, two of whom are Saudi Arabian fugitives and two consulate general workers, be sentenced separately to prison terms.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor prepared the 41-page indictment, approved by the chief prosecutor's office, and sent it to the Istanbul 11th High Criminal Court where the main case against 20 defendants had been heard.

The prosecutors are seeking between six months to five years in prison for four suspects — Ahmet Abdulaziz M, Khalid Yahya M, Mohammed Ibrahim A, and Obaid Ghazi A.

According to the indictment, the two consular staff members were in the team that carried out the murder and left Turkey after the killing while the other four suspects are accused of leaving Turkey after tampering with evidence by going to the crime scene immediately after the murder.

The Saudi trial

A Saudi court this month jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years for the murder, four months after Khashoggi's family forgave his killers and enabled earlier death sentences to be set aside.

Prosecutors said they were given 20-year jail terms after the journalist's family decided to pardon them.

The Saudi trial process was widely criticised.

“The Saudi prosecutor performed one more act today in this parody of justice. But these verdicts carry no legal or moral legitimacy,” said Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies