Justice Not Verdict

JUSTICE

VERDICT not By Tom Ahlstrom

Most awaited verdict by a Saudi court finally arrived on December 24, 2019, sentencing death penalty to 5 out of 11 suspects in Journalist/Writer/Columnist Jamal Khashoggi murder case. 3 gets 24 years in prison for cover up and 3 were set free. US State Department official hailed the decision as “an important step” in holding the perpetrators accountable. Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), was living in self-imposed exile in the United States, where he had been granted residency status.

Saudi public prosecutor said that 11 defendants were presented to him alongside their lawyers at the first session and that the prosecution asked the death penalty for five for their role in the murder, and he accepted the prosecution’s demand. sentenced to death may not deserve the ultimate penalty,” she added. The slain journalist’s son, Salah Khashoggi, said his family had achieved justice, thanks to the verdict of Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor.

Khashoggi, still a Saudi citizen was visiting Turkey and needed some paperwork done to get married with his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz. On October 2, 2018, he entered Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul but never exited the building. Cengiz waited outside for him and, when he did not return, got in touch with authorities as he had instructed her to do, “if I don’t come out call the authorities including US embassy”. Authority’s action was late and he was gone forever. In the meantime another woman, last named Atr surfaced in US claiming to be his wife who he kept secret from his family and Turkish fiancée. She showed the wedding documents and photographs to the press. The wedding however, is not registered. The verdict left Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz unsatisfied, with her saying on Twitter that the “Saudi announcement not acceptable”. Khashoggi’s friend and editor at the Washington Post, Karen Attiah, said, “Justice for Jamal Khashoggi’s senseless, horrific death is not more senseless deaths”. “More anonymous bloodshed is not closure. The ‘trials’ were in secret. For all we know, these five men who have been “Today we have been granted justice as the children of the deceased, God willing, Jamal Khashoggi. We affirm our confidence in the Saudi judiciary at all levels, that it has been fair to us and that justice has been achieved,” he said in a Twitter post. Paris-based media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders said that justice was “trampled on” with the death sentences meted out after a trial that did not respect international standards of justice. Turkish Investigator Agnes Callamard and international rights groups have condemned the verdict. Earlier this year, Turkish intelligence agencies concluded that he was killed in a premeditated murder. Turkish officials believed that the body of Khashoggi, was cut up then rolled up in a rug and given to a “local cooperator” for disposal. Initially, CIA has reportedly concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Sal-