Turkey expenses 20 Saudis above Khashoggi murder
25 March, 2020
Turkey has charged 20 suspects including two ex - aides to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the 2018 murder of Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Prosecutors accuse Saudi Arabia's deputy cleverness chief Ahmed al-Assiri and the royal court's mass media czar Saud al-Qahtani of leading the procedure and offering orders to a good Saudi hit team.
Khashoggi, 59, a good commentator who wrote for The Washington Content, was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate on October 2, 2018, to acquire paperwork for his wedding ceremony to Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz.
Turkey carried out its own investigation in to the murder after being unhappy with Saudi explanations.
The Istanbul prosecutor's office said in a statement that Assiri and Qahtani were charged with "instigating the deliberate and monstrous killing, causing torment".
Eighteen additional suspects -- including intelligence operative Maher Mutreb who frequently travelled with the crown prince on foreign tours, forensic specialized Salah al-Tubaigy and Fahad al-Balawi, a member of the Saudi royal safeguard -- were also charged with "deliberately and monstrously eliminating, causing torment".
They face life in jail if convicted.
Mutreb, Tubaigy and Balawi had been among 11 on trial found in Riyadh, where sources said a lot of those accused defended themselves by telling they were carrying out Assiri's orders, describing him as being the operation's "ringleader".
The Turkish prosecutor said a trial in absentia will be opened against the 20 suspects but did not give a date.
The prosecutor had already issued arrest warrants for the suspects, who are not in Turkey.
Khashoggi, a good Saudi insider-turned-critic, was strangled and his body trim into pieces by a good 15-man Saudi squad inside the consulate, according to Turkish officials.
His remains have never been found.
The CIA, UN special envoy Agnes Callamard and Turkey have directly connected Crown Prince Mohammed to the killing, a charge the kingdom vehemently denies.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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