A court in Saudi Arabia on Monday sentenced five people to death in the murder of US resident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in October 2018.
Three others were sentenced to 24 years in prison.
“The court issued death sentences on five men who directly took part in the killing, “ a statement released by the prosecution said.
During the trial, Saudi prosecutors accused deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri for overseeing the killing in the Istanbul consulate and further that he was advised by the royal court’s media czar Saud al-Qahtani.
However, though investigated he was not indicted owing to “lack of sufficient evidence”.
The court also ruled that Saudi consul-general in Istanbul at the time, Mohammed al-Qtaibi, was not guilty. He was released from prison after the verdicts were announced.
The names of those sentenced have not been released.
The Killing
Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Pirnce Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), was living in self-exile in US that granted him political asylum.
He took up job as columnist in Washington Post and was planning to marry and move on to Turkey to settle there with his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz. On 2 October, 2018 he walked into Saudi consulate in Istanbul to collect documents that would allow him to wed Cengiz, who waited for him outside. He never came out alive.
Probe based on CCTV footage and forensic evidence showed how the journalist was killed by a hit squad and then dismembered inside the building. The consulate was scrubbed clean and his body disposed . The whereabouts of his dismembered body still remains a mystery. To mislead his finders, a body-double wearing the dead Khashoggi’s clothes exited the consulate in what had imprints of a meticulously planned murder.
