TURKEY: 20 SAUDIS CHARGED IN KHASHOGGI KILLING
TURKEY: 20 SAUDIS CHARGED IN KHASHOGGI KILLING
A Turkish court on Saturday accepted an indictment on the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi ( Cemal Kaşikcı ) in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
The 117-page indictment prepared by Istanbul prosecutors accusing 20 Saudi nationals of involvement in the gruesome premeditated murder was accepted by Istanbul’s Heavy Penal Court No. 11.
Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed and dismembered by a group of Saudi operatives shortly after he entered the country’s consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018.
His body was never recovered.
Khashoggi, according to reports by the UN and other independent organizations, was very likely killed on orders of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.
The indictment states that suspect Mansour Othman M. Abbahussain, working as major general and intelligence officer in Saudi Arabia, was tasked in the office of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and was instructed by Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al-Asiri to bring Khashoggi back to the country and to kill him if he resisted. It added that Abbahussain assembled a 15-man hit squad, including himself, for the murder.
He also distributed tasks among the squad, separating them into three groups: intelligence, logistics, and negotiation.
Abbahussain also determined the place to meet Khashoggi as the working office at the Istanbul consulate and made plans for all contingencies before, during, and after the deed.
The indictment accuses al-Asiri and Saud Al-Qahtani of incitement to deliberate killing through torture and seeks aggravated life sentences for both.
It also accuses 18 other Saudi nationals and recommends aggravated life sentences for each.
The 18 were in consensus over killing Khashoggi if he refused to return to Saudi Arabia and acted on the mutual decision to commit the crime, according to the indictment. April 2020
Writing by Sena Guler Anadolu Agency website
What does Saudi Arabia say? ( BBC World News )
For more than two weeks, Saudi Arabia consistently denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s fate.
Prince Mohammed told Bloomberg News that the journalist had left the consulate “after a few minutes or one hour”.
“We have nothing to hide,” he added.
But in a change of tune on 20 October, the Saudi government said a preliminary investigation by prosecutors had concluded that the journalist died during a “fight” after resisting attempts to return him to Saudi Arabia. Later, a Saudi official attributed the death to a chokehold.
But Saudi officials continued to give conflicting explanations of what happened – then-Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on 21 October that the exact cause of Khashoggi’s death was not known.
But he insisted: “This was an operation where individuals ended up exceeding the authorities and responsibilities they had. They made the mistake when they killed Jamal Khashoggi in the consulate and they tried to cover up for it.”
On 15 November, Saudi Arabia’s deputy public prosecutor Shalaan Shalaan said the murder was ordered by the head of a “negotiations team” sent to Istanbul by the Saudi deputy intelligence chief to bring Khashoggi back to the kingdom “by means of persuasion” or, if that failed, “by force”.
Investigators concluded that Khashoggi was forcibly restrained after a struggle and injected with a large amount of a drug, resulting in an overdose that led to his death, Mr Shalaan said. His body was then dismembered and handed over to a local “collaborator” outside the consulate for disposal, he added.
Five individuals had confessed to the murder, Mr Shalaan asserted, adding: “[The crown prince] did not have any knowledge about it.”
What action have the Saudi authorities taken?
They have insisted that they are committed to and capable of bringing those responsible for Khashoggi’s murder to justice.
On 26 October, Saudi officials said 18 people had been arrested and five senior government officials had been sacked as part of an investigation into the case. The officials included Deputy Intelligence Chief Ahmad Asiri and Saud al-Qahtani, a senior aide to Prince Mohammed.
Media captionThe Saudi foreign minister blamed “rogue individuals”
On 3 January, 11 individuals were put on trial at the Criminal Court of Riyadh in connection with the killing, and the public prosecutor asked for the death penalty for five of them.
However, the trial is taking place behind closed doors and the identities of the defendants have not been released.
What does Turkey say happened?
Turkish officials said 15 Saudi agents arrived in Istanbul in the days before the murder, and that the group removed the security cameras and surveillance footage from the consulate before Khashoggi’s arrival.
Istanbul’s prosecutor, Irfan Fidan, said on 31 October that the journalist was suffocated almost as soon as entered the consulate, and that his body was dismembered and destroyed.
Mr Fidan is seeking the extradition of the 18 suspects arrested in Saudi Arabia.
Writing in the Washington Post on 2 November, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared it had been established that Khashoggi “was killed in cold blood by a death squad” and “that his murder was premeditated”.
“Yet there are other, no less significant questions whose answers will contribute to our understanding of this deplorable act” he added. “Where is Khashoggi’s body? Who is the ‘local collaborator’ to whom Saudi officials claimed to have handed over Khashoggi’s remains? Who gave the order to kill this kind soul? Unfortunately, the Saudi authorities have refused to answer those questions.”
Mr Erdogan said he knew the order to kill Khashoggi “came from the highest levels of the Saudi government”, but that he did “not believe for a second that King Salman, the custodian of the holy mosques, ordered the hit”.
What did the UN investigation find?
An investigation by UN Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard concluded that Khashoggi’s death “constituted an extrajudicial killing for which the state of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible”.
She also found there was “credible evidence” to warrant an investigation into Prince Mohammed and other high-level Saudi officials, and said the prince should be subject to the targeted sanctions already imposed by some UN member states against other named individuals allegedly involved in the killing.
Ms Callamard said both the investigations into Khashoggi’s death by Saudi Arabia and Turkey “failed to meet international standards”.
Media captionJamal Khashoggi’s fiancée: “We didn’t say any goodbyes”
She called for the trial in Saudi Arabia of the 11 suspects to be suspended, saying it would “not deliver credible accountability”.
“The trial is held behind closed doors; the identity of those charged has not been released nor is the identity of those facing death penalty. At the time of writing, at least one of those identified as responsible for the planning and organising of the execution of Mr Khashoggi has not been charged,” she noted.
Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, rejected the report, tweeting that it was “nothing new” and contained “clear contradictions and baseless allegations which challenge its credibility”.
“The Saudi judiciary is the sole party qualified to deal with the Khashoggi case and works with full independence,” he added.
Is there any evidence?
In mid-November, Turkey’s government said it had shared audio recordings of the killing with Saudi Arabia, the US, the UK, Germany and France. While not officially made public, details of the recordings were included in Ms Callamard’s report.
The UN special rapporteur noted that she was not able to obtain copies of the recordings from Turkish intelligence or authenticate them.
But in one recording, her report says, two Saudi officials are apparently heard discussing how to cut up and transport Khashoggi’s body just minutes before the journalist entered the consulate.
One is quoted as saying: “The body is heavy. First time I cut on the ground. If we take plastic bags and cut it into pieces, it will be finished.” At the end of the conversation, the other asks whether “the sacrificial animal” has arrived.
A later conversation recorded inside the consul general’s office purportedly features Khashoggi being told by officials: “We will have to take you back. There is an order from Interpol. Interpol requested you to be sent back. We are coming to get you.”
The reports quotes Mr Khashoggi as replying that “there isn’t a case against me. I notified some people outside; they are waiting for me; a driver is waiting for me.”
At 13:33 local time, he is heard saying: “There is a towel here. Are you going to give me drugs?” Someone responds: “We will anaesthetise you.”
The report says the conversation was followed by sounds of a struggle, during which people are heard saying “Did he sleep?”, “He raises his head,” and “Keep pushing.” Later, there are sounds of movement, heavy panting, and plastic sheets.
Turkish intelligence identified the sound of a saw at 13:39, but Ms Callamard said she and her delegation could not make out the sources of the sounds they heard.
Assessments of the recordings by intelligence officers in Turkey and other countries suggest Khashoggi could have been injected with a sedative and then suffocated using a plastic bag, according to the special rapporteur.
Turkish officials were not granted access to the Saudi consulate for DNA testing until more than two weeks after the incident.
The special rapporteur said there was credible evidence that crime scenes had been “thoroughly, even forensically, cleaned” beforehand.
Among the areas searched for Khashoggi’s remains are the Belgrad forest, which a consular attaché visited on 1 October, and the coastal town of Yalova, the location of a farmhouse allegedly owned by a Saudi national.
Who are the alleged Saudi agents?
None of those put on trial have been identified by Saudi prosecutors, but the report by the UN special rapporteur named them, citing information from “various governments’ sources”.
According to the report, the five facing the death penalty are Fahad Shabib Albalawi; Turki Muserref Alshehri; Waleed Abdullah Alshehri; Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, an intelligence officer who the US says worked for Saud al-Qahtani; and Dr Salah Mohammed Tubaigy, a forensic doctor with the interior ministry.
The other six defendants are Mansour Othman Abahussain; Mohammed Saad Alzahrani; Mustafa Mohammed Almadani; Saif Saad Alqahtani; Muflih Shaya Almuslih, reportedly a member of the consulate staff; and Ahmad Asiri, the former deputy intelligence chief.
According to interviews conducted by the special rapporteur, the defendants’ lawyers argued during a court hearing in January that they were “state employees and could not object to the orders of their superiors”.
Three defendants allegedly said that Mr Khashoggi “started screaming, so they covered his mouth to prevent him from making noise, which accidentally killed him”, according to the report. Ms Callamard noted that she had heard no screaming in the audio recordings from the consulate.
Mr Asiri was cited as telling the court that he had “never ordered the use of force” to bring Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia.
Nine of the defendants named by Ms Callamard were previously identified by Turkish officials as members of the 15-strong team of agents sent to Istanbul.
Most of the agents arrived at and departed from the city’s airport by private or commercial jet the same day as Khashoggi’s killing.
CCTV footage appears to show vehicles driving them to the consulate, and two hours after Khashoggi’s arrival, some of them heading to the consul’s residence.
The special rapporteur said three men were filmed entering the residence with what seemed like plastic trash bags, and at least one rolling suitcase.
How have Saudi Arabia’s Western allies reacted?
Khashoggi’s killing was internationally condemned and caused a diplomatic crisis between Saudi Arabia and some of its closest allies, including the US.
After the murder was confirmed by the Saudis, US President Donald Trump described it as the “worst cover-up in history”. However, he defended US ties to the kingdom, a key trading partner.
This response was widely derided by senators in Congress who point the finger at Prince Mohammed and want the US to take tougher action against Saudi Arabia by halting arms sales.
According to US media reports, the CIA – whose boss, Gina Haspell, has heard the consulate audio recordings – concluded that Prince Mohammed ordered Khashoggi’s killing. Mr Trump denied that.
The US, Canada, France and the UK all levied sanctions against 18 Saudis allegedly linked to the killing. The Saudi crown prince was not among them.
Germany, Finland and Denmark were among the European nations to cancel arms deals with Saudi Arabia after the killing. May 2020
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45812399
KHASHOGGI FAMİLY FORGIVES THEIR FATHER’S KILLERS
‘We the sons of martyr Jamal Khashoggi announce we forgive and pardon those who killed our father,’ son Salah says ( Anadolu Agency )
The family of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said Friday they have forgiven those who killed their father.
“On this blessed night of the blessed month (of #Ramadan), we remember God’s saying: ‘If a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah’,” son Salah Khashoggi said in a tweet.
“Therefore we the sons of martyr Jamal Khashoggi announce we forgive and pardon those who killed our father, seeking reward from God almighty.”
Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed and dismembered by a group of Saudi operatives shortly after he entered the country’s consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018.
Riyadh offered various, conflicting narratives to explain his disappearance before acknowledging he was murdered in the diplomatic building, while seeking to shift blame for his death on a botched rendition operation carried out by rogue agents.
Khashoggi’s body has never been found.
UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Agnes Callamard concluded in an earlier report that Khashoggi’s murder was a “deliberate, premeditated execution” and encouraged an investigation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
Saudi officials, however, have insisted that the crown prince was not involved in the murder.
Saudi Arabia announced at the end of last year that five people have been sentenced to death for taking part in Khashoggi’s murder.
Anadolu Agency website Turkish Stated Owned
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/jamal-khashoggi/khashoggi-family-forgives-their-fathers-killers/1849814