By Daily Sabah
Acourt in Saudi Arabia handed down 20 years in prison to five suspects for their role in journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, news agencies reported Monday.
According to the website of Al Arabia news channel, the kingdom also convicted three other people, handing down sentences of between seven and 10 years.
Final rulings have been issued against defendants in the killing of The Washington Post journalist, Al Arabiya cited Saudi prosecution as saying.
Khashoggi was killed in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul Consulate in 2018.
On Sept. 28, when Khashoggi came to the Saudi Consulate for papers to marry his fiancee Hatice Cengiz, Ahmed Abdullah al-Muzaini, who worked as Saudi Arabia’s intelligence station chief at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, informed Riyadh with an emergency code that Khashoggi had arrived at the consulate. Khashoggi’s return to the consulate on Oct. 2 was also reported to Riyadh. He was slain on the same day.
On the same day at 7:08 p.m., Saudi Consul General Mohammad al-Otaibi held a phone call with an official from the office of Saud al-Qahtani, a close aide of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).
During the conversation, the murder of Khashoggi was called “a private matter” and “a top-secret mission.” The official told the Saudi consul that “the head of state security called me. They have a mission. They want one of your officials from your delegation to deal with a private matter. They want someone from your protocol … for a private, top-secret mission. He can even get permission if necessary.”
These statements are proof that the murder of Khashoggi was not done without the consent of the controversial Saudi crown prince.
