Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had absolutely no involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the kingdom’s public prosecutor said Thursday, adding that five Saudi officials face the death penalty if found guilty of the crime.
The announcement comes after the global outcry over the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of Saudi policy.
The BBC reports the prosecutor said the journalist was murdered after “negotiations” for his return to the kingdom failed. He identified the person who ordered the killing as the head of the negotiating team sent to Turkey to repatriate Khashoggi.
The dissident writer was given a lethal injection after a struggle with agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October, the spokesman told reporters. Khashoggi’s body was then dismembered and taken out of the building, he said.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Shalaan bin Rajih Shalaan did not identify those charged, but he said investigations had “revealed that the person who ordered the killing was the head of the negotiations team” sent to ensure Khashoggi returned to Saudi Arabia from his self-imposed exile.
“[The crown prince] did not have any knowledge about it,” he added.
A protester dressed as Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, demonstrates outside the White House in the wake of the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2, 2018. (Win McNamee/Getty)
Turkish officials have previously accused Prince Mohammed of ordering the murder while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the killing was ordered at the “highest levels” of the Saudi government, as Breitbart Jerusalem reported.
Prince Mohammed has denied any role in the murder, describing it as a “heinous crime that cannot be justified” and vowing that “justice will prevail”.
The death penalty for five people who have been charged with “ordering and committing the crime and for the appropriate sentences for the other indicted individuals” has now been requested.
Eleven out of 21 suspects have been indicted and their cases will be referred to court, while the investigation with the remaining suspects will continue in order to determine their role in the crime.