January 04, 2019:
On Thursday, the trial for the men accused of murdering Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi began in Saudi Arabia, with prosecutors confirming they will seek the death penalty for at least five of 11 people charged in the assassination.
Khashoggi’s gruesome murder captured international attention, but the trial for his killing is expected to largely happen outside the public view and follow the official story already put forward by the Saudi Govt. — that its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), had nothing to do with Khashoggi’s assassination.
Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post who’d been critical of the Saudi Govt., was killed Oct 2 in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
The CIA has since concluded that MBS ordered the killing, a finding that’s been echoed by prominent members of the US Congress and backed up by other Western and Turkish intelligence agencies.
That’s in direct contradiction to the Saudi Govt’s story.
The kingdom has changed its narrative a few times since Khashoggi’s death, first saying the journalist left the consulate through a back entrance, then claiming he was accidentally killed during a fistfight gone awry.
The Saudi prosecutors later admitted the murder was premeditated but continued to put distance b/w the journalist’s death and any involvement by MBS.
No evidence pointing to MBS’s complicity is likely to come out in the trial of these suspects. The Thursday hearing was closed to the public; as the Guardian points out, this is standard practice in Saudi Arabia.
What’s more, it’s still a bit murky exactly who is being charged for what in Khashoggi’s death. The statement from Saudi prosecutors about the 11 suspects didn’t reveal any names or details.
As the New York Times notes, it’s not even really clear why prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty for some of the suspects in the case but not for others.
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