Turkey to hand over Jamal Khashoggi trial to Saudis

Turkey held the penultimate part of the trial in absentia of 26 individuals related to the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Thursday before sending the case to Riyadh, angering rights organisations.

On October 2, 2018, the 59-year-old journalist was assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, in a brutal murder that stunned the globe.

The trial began in 2020, with tight ties between the two Sunni Muslim regional powers.

However, with Turkey in dire need of investment to help it recover from its economic crisis, Ankara has attempted to mend fences with Riyadh.

Last week, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said he would approve a Turkish prosecutor’s request to hand the case over to Saudi Arabia.

The case was “dragging,” according to the prosecutor, because the court’s instructions could not be followed out because the defendants were foreigners.

Human Rights Watch, on the other hand, criticised Ankara on Wednesday, claiming that the decision will “end all hope of justice.”

– Getting away with murder –

Michael Page, the group’s deputy Middle East director, said that moving the trial would “reinforce Saudi authorities’ clear assumption that they can get away with murder.”

Amnesty International, whose executive director Agnes Callamard examined the murder as a UN special rapporteur in 2019, also chastised the Turkish government.

“Turkey will voluntarily and deliberately return the case to the people who bear responsibility,” she stated.

In his 101-page UN assessment, Callamard found “solid evidence” tying Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder and a cover-up effort.

Following clandestine judicial processes, a Saudi court in September 2020 reversed five death sentences and sentenced eight unknown defendants to up to 20 years in prison for the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.

– Boycott –

Turkey moved through with the Khashoggi case, to to Riyadh’s chagrin, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the time that the order to kill him came from the “highest levels” of government.

Saudi Arabia used an unofficial boycott of Turkish goods to exert pressure on Turkey’s economy in the years that followed.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu paid a visit to Riyadh last year to heal bridges with the country.

The transfer of the case to Riyadh would remove the final stumbling block to normalising relations between the two countries.

In a February interview with AFP, Khashoggi’s Turkish girlfriend Hatice Cengiz encouraged Ankara to press for justice despite the reconciliation with Saudi Arabia.

“In order to prevent anything like this from happening again…(Turkey) should not drop this case,” Cengiz stated.

When Khashoggi was killed, she was left waiting outside the consulate. He’d gone there to get the documentation he needed to marry her. His body was never discovered.

In the face of growing diplomatic isolation, Erdogan has moved to strengthen connections with regional competitors such as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which has resulted in a drop in foreign investment, notably from the West.

He said in January that he was considering a trip to Saudi Arabia during a moment of economic turmoil.

According to official figures released Monday, Turkey’s annual inflation rate has risen to 61.14 percent.

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