Turkey indicts six more Saudis over Khashoggi murder

ISTANBUL: Turkish prosecutors have indicted six new Saudis suspected of involvement in the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Istanbul prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for two of the suspects and up to five years in jail for the remaining four, a Turkish news agency reported.

Khashoggi was killed and dismembered at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on 2nd October 2018, in a case that tarnished the reputation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi went inside the consulate to obtain paperwork for his marriage to Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz.

The six Saudi suspects, indicted just days ahead of the second anniversary of the journalist’s death, are not in Turkey and would be tried in absentia.

In a separate case launched in July, an Istanbul court began to try in absentia 20 other Saudis over the murder, including two former aides to the Saudi prince.

Turkish prosecutors claim Saudi deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri and the royal court’s media in-charge Saud al-Qahtani led the operation and gave orders to a Saudi hit team.

Khashoggi was strangled and his body cut into pieces by a 15-man Saudi squad inside the consulate, according to Turkish officials. His remains have not been found.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the order to murder Khashoggi came from “the highest levels” of the Saudi government but has never directly blamed Prince Mohammed.

In September, a Saudi court overturned five death sentences issued after a closed-door trial in Saudi Arabia that ended last year, sentencing them to 20 years in prison instead.