UPDATES WITH PROSECUTOR’S STATEMENT; ADDS BACKGROUND
RIYADH (AA) – Saudi Arabia’s chief prosecutor’s office on Thursday announced it had charged 11 out of 21 suspects in relation to the murder early last month of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
At a press conference held in capital Riyadh, the prosecutor announced his intention to call for the death penalty against anyone found guilty of ordering and carrying out the journalist’s murder.
The prosecutor’s office also said it was awaiting Turkey's response to its request for additional evidence and audio recordings of the crime.
In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the prosecutor’s office said that fresh information had been provided by a joint Saudi-Turkish team, along with interrogations of 21 suspects now in custody.
“After summoning three additional suspects, the public prosecutor has indicted 11 individuals whose cases will now be referred to court,” the statement read.
It added: “The remaining suspects will be investigated in order to determine their role in the crime.”
It went on to assert that the public prosecutor had requested the death penalty for five individuals who had been implicated in ordering and committing the murder “and for appropriate sentences [to be handed down against] the remaining indicted individuals”.
The public prosecutor, the statement went on, has requested “that the Turkish authorities sign a special cooperation mechanism specific to this case with a view to providing them with results of the investigation, pursuant to Saudi law, and obtaining the relevant evidence and information now in possession of the Turkish authorities”.
Khashoggi, a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, was killed on Oct. 2 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
After weeks of denying any involvement in the crime, Saudi Arabia later admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside the consulate but claimed the Saudi royal family had no prior knowledge of any plot to murder the journalist.