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Twenty Saudi officials go on trial in absentia over Khashoggi killing Khashoggi fiancee calls for justice as 20 Saudi officials go on trial in Turkey
(about 7 hours later)
Fiancee of late journalist hopes Istanbul trial will reveal circumstances of death and location of remains Hatice Cengiz hopes trial in absentia will reveal circumstances of journalist’s death and location of remains
Twenty Saudi officials are on trial in absentia in Turkey accused of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, almost two years after his disappearance in Istanbul shocked the world and irreparably tarnished the image of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman as a liberal reformer. The fiancee of the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has told a Turkish court that all avenues for justice must be explored as 20 Saudi officials went on trial in absentia over the gruesome killing and dismemberment in Istanbul in 2018.
Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and the UN special rapporteur Agnès Callamard waited for the judges to arrive in a courtroom at the imposing courthouse complex in Istanbul’s Çağlayan neighbourhood before the trial began on Friday. Both women are hoping it will shed more light on the grim circumstances of the journalist’s death and reveal what happened to his remains. Taking the witness stand on Friday morning at Istanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse complex, Hatice Cengiz had to pause several times to stop her voice from breaking. The absence of the 20 defendants, as well as Khashoggi’s still missing remains, weighed heavily over the proceedings.
Khashoggi, 59, was once a member of the Saudi elite, but broke ranks after growing uneasy about the swift rise to power of Prince Mohammed. He moved to Washington DC, starting a new life as a columnist for the Washington Post. “This has been an exhausting process both mentally and morally”, Cengiz told reporters outside the building after the three-hour hearing concluded.
He visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 to collect paperwork for his upcoming marriage to Cengiz, but never emerged from the building. The trial is being closely watched for new information or evidence into the killing and what happened to Khashoggi’s body, which has never been found.
According to the Turkish indictment, based on analysis of phone and computer records and witness statements, investigators concluded that Khashoggi was strangled to death. Turkish investigators have also alleged that Khashoggi’s body was dismembered with a bone saw and then dissolved in acid on the consulate premises. The CIA concluded that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had ordered Khashoggi’s assassination, a conclusion that shocked the kingdom’s western allies and forever sullied the de facto Saudi ruler’s preferred image as a liberal reformer.
The indictment issued in March by Istanbul prosecutors accuses two men in Prince Mohammed’s inner circle – the former deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s general intelligence, Ahmed al-Asiri, and the former royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani, of instigating “premeditated murder with monstrous intent”. Turkey is seeking life imprisonment in all 20 cases. Prince Mohammed strenuously denies any involvement in the killing and, despite an international outcry, was staunchly defended by the US president, Donald Trump.
Khashoggi’s gruesome killing stunned Saudi Arabia’s western allies, plunging the kingdom into its worst diplomatic crisis since the 9/11 attacks. It also irreversibly tarnished Prince Mohammed’s image as a liberal reformer after questions were raised over how such an operation could have been carried out without his consent or knowledge. Khashoggi broke with the Saudi elite in 2017, disillusioned with Prince Mohammed’s empty promises about democratising the kingdom. He moved to the US and became a columnist for the Washington Post, often criticising Saudi policy.
The CIA, along with several western governments, eventually concluded that the crown prince was involved in Khashoggi’s assassination. The kingdom has denied such claims, instead blaming rogue agents who it says took a repatriation mission too far. While visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 to pick up paperwork for his marriage to Cengiz, a Turkish national, Khashoggi disappeared and was never seen again. After a series of shifting explanations, Riyadh eventually admitted the 59-year-old had been killed in what it says was an extradition operation gone wrong.
Saudi Arabia has rejected Turkish calls for the suspects’ return to face trial in Turkey. In December last year, a Saudi court sentenced five unidentified people to death over Khashoggi’s killing but in effect exonerated men close to Prince Mohammed. Prosecutors are seeking life in prison for 20 Saudis on charges of “premeditated murder with monstrous intent, causing torment” - 15 individuals accused of carrying out the killing, and a further five of planning it.
The Saudi prosecutors also ruled there had been no premeditation to kill at the beginning of the repatriation mission, a finding at odds with a UN inquiry published in June 2019 and the Turkish indictment. Two men in Prince Mohammed’s inner circle – the former deputy head of general intelligence Ahmed al-Asiri, and the former royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani – are among the defendants, along with Maher Mutreb, an intelligence operative who frequently travelled with the royal on foreign tours, forensic expert Salah al-Tubaigy and Fahad al-Balawi, a member of the Saudi royal guard.
Callamard, the UN special rapporteur who authored the inquiry into Khashoggi’s death but was barred from access to the secretive Saudi trial, called the ruling in Riyadh a mockery of justice. A previous trial held behind closed doors in Riyadh sentenced five unidentified people to death over Khashoggi’s killing but in effect exonerated Asiri and al-Qahtani, the men close to the crown prince.
The Turkish investigation has also been marred by accusations of bias: Ankara has used the killing to exert pressure on its Saudi regional rivals, drip-feeding lurid details to the media and sharing damning audio recordings of the murder with other governments. Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur who authored a 2019 report into Khashoggi’s killing, said in Istanbul that thetrial was an “important formalised step” in the search for justice.
Callamard and several rights groups have repeatedly called for an independent international investigation into the journalist’s death. “Before we had media reports, my own report … now we have moved the investigation into a formal setting completely different to the trial in Saudi Arabia, which did not have any legitimacy,” she said. “For the first time we have a number of those who carried out and commissioned the crime indicted … although not everyone is indicted,” she said, referring to Prince Mohammed.
Riyadh has repeatedly rejected Ankara’s calls for the suspects to face trial in Turkey. A statement of forgiveness for the killers from Khashoggi’s family in May this year is widely assumed to have been extracted under pressure in order to grant the convicted men clemency.
The atmosphere in the Istanbul courtroom was tense on Friday. Several workers at the consulate and consul-general’s residence appeared reluctant to testify, at one point leading one of the judges to snap at a witness who said he could not remember specific details.
Turkish investigators have explored several lines of inquiry in trying to determine what happened to Khashoggi’s body. An indictment issued in March suggested that officials were now focusing on a large tandoor-style oven in the Saudi consul-general’s residence.
Zeki Demir, who worked there, testified on Friday that he was asked to come into work to light the oven after five or six men he did not know and described as “guests” had failed to start it. After he made a joke about “falling in the tandoor and becoming kebabs”, the atmosphere in the room soured and he was asked to leave, he said. When he returned to work a few days later, the oven and its marble surrounds had been cleaned with bleach.
Turkish investigators allege that the oven is capable of reaching temperatures of 1,000 degrees celsius, sufficient to remove any DNA evidence.
Yasin Aktay, a senior adviser to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and a close friend of Khashoggi, told the court he had warned his friend not to visit the Saudi consulate and that all the defendants “should trust the Turkish judiciary and submit themselves to justice”.
A team of 14 Turkish state-appointed lawyers were present to represent the Saudi defendants, although none had managed to speak to their clients.
Turkey’s pursuit of the Saudi defendants is widely viewed as hypocritical in a country that routinely locks up dissidents and has hollowed out its own judicial system, replacing independent judges with government-loyal officials.
Erdoğan has used the killing to exert pressure on his Saudi regional rivals, saying Turkish intelligence found that the order to murder Khashoggi came from “the highest levels” of the Saudi government, but he has never directly blamed Prince Mohammed.
Callamard is calling for an independent international investigation into what she described as a “premeditated extrajudicial execution”.
The special rapporteur also expressed surprise that other countries had not sent representatives to observe the opening of the case and said she hoped the international community would support the search for justice in the next hearing on 24 November.
The US in particular had a role to play, she said. “The one country that has claimed to have real evidence of Mohammed bin Salman’s responsibility is the USA. So far Congress’s efforts to get to the bottom of what happened have been hampered by the White House.
“There is still a lot of information that has not been made public. Maybe after [the US] elections in November there will be a change in attitudes from the White House on this matter.”