The Saudi Arabia public prosecutor has today Monday said it has sentenced to death five persons and three others to serve various jail terms over the October killing of the renowned Journalist, Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Khashoggi was a united state based Journalist fund of criticising of the Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, the Kingdom’s de facto ruler. Khashoggi was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2nd, 2018 where he was to receive papers ahead of his wedding.
Allegedly, his body was dismembered and removed from the building till today nobody heard about him again. The killing attracted international scrutiny which since then has cast the image of the crown Prince in shadow.
The CIA and some Western government have opined that the Crown Prince was behind the crime, however, Saudi officials defended him, saying he had no role on the incident. Subsequently, about 11 persons who were arrested in connection with the crime were tried in a secretive proceeding in Riyadh.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Public Prosecutor, Shalaan al-Shalaan, who read out the preliminary verdict in the trial, said Saud al-Qahtani, a former high-profile Saudi royal adviser, had been investigated but was not charged and was released. (Reuters)
