Saudi Death Sentences in Khashoggi Killing Fail to Dispel Questions
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Saudi Arabia sentenced five men to death and three to prison terms over the killing of the Saudi dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, a ruling widely dismissed as punishing low-level agents while protecting their leaders.
The sentences, announced by a government spokesman on Monday, reflected the Saudi argument that the killing was not ordered by the royal court, but was instead a last-minute decision by agents on the ground — a narrative that contradicts ample indications that the agents arrived in Istanbul last year with an intent to kill and the tools to do so.
While subject to appeal, the verdicts also raised the possibility that Saudi Arabia could behead the men who carried out the killing while shielding those who ordered it. The kingdom has denied any involvement by its crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, and his top aides, who foreign analysts say were probably behind the killing.
A United Nations expert who investigated the killing dismissed the verdicts as “a mockery.”
The death of Mr. Khashoggi, 59, a veteran Saudi journalist who fled the kingdom and wrote columns for The Washington Post, caused international outrage and battered the image of Prince Mohammed as a young ruler working to open up his kingdom’s economy and society.
It also caused widespread anger in Washington among diplomats, lawmakers and intelligence officials who saw the killing as an inexcusable act by a longtime American partner. But President Trump has defended Saudi Arabia and Prince Mohammed throughout, lauding them as key allies of the United States and loyal buyers of American weapons.
The sentences appeared unlikely to change those views.
The White House did not comment on the sentences on Monday.
Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said they were part of a Saudi effort to distance the Saudi leadership from the killing.
“The suggestion that this was a rogue operation or a snap decision is contradicted by the evidence and common sense,” Mr. Schiff said in a statement.
Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island echoed an earlier assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency that Prince Mohammed had likely ordered the killing.
“It is inconceivable that such activities would be conducted without the direction or blessing of the crown prince given that he effectively controls all levers of power in Saudi Arabia,” Mr. Reed said in a statement.
The kingdom’s handling of the case has raised further concerns. Turkey has accused Saudi Arabia of impeding the investigation, and a United Nations investigator said the kingdom’s actions could amount to obstruction of justice.
The trial, held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, was shrouded in secrecy. The kingdom did not reveal the suspects’ names, and foreign diplomats who attended sessions of the trial were sworn to silence.
Adam Coogle, who researches Saudi Arabia for Human Rights Watch, said that the opaque trial and the kingdom’s overall treatment of the case showed the need for an independent investigation.
“Saudi Arabia’s absolution of its senior leadership of any culpability in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi raises serious concerns over the fairness of the criminal proceedings,” he said. “Saudi Arabia’s handling of the murder, from complete denial to hanging the murder on lower-level operatives in a trial that lacked transparency, demonstrates the need for an independent criminal inquiry.”
Mr. Khashoggi, who lived in Virginia, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, to obtain paperwork he needed to marry his Turkish fiancée. Inside, he was confronted by Saudi agents, who killed him and dismembered his body. His remains have yet to be found.
On Monday, a spokesman for the kingdom’s public prosecutor told reporters in Riyadh that no evidence had been found that the killing had been planned ahead of time. Instead, he said, agents had been sent to Istanbul to “negotiate” with Mr. Khashoggi and decided to kill him after that effort failed.
But investigations by the Turkish authorities and a United Nations expert found vast evidence of premeditation, such as the arrival of 15 Saudi agents in Istanbul in the hours before Mr. Khashoggi’s killing. They included a body double who sought to leave a false trail of surveillance video indicating that Mr. Khashoggi was still alive, and a forensic doctor who the Turks say arrived with a bone saw that was used to dismember Mr. Khashoggi’s body.
Recordings captured by Turkish intelligence inside the consulate before, during and after the killing, and shared with the United Nations investigator, revealed the agents discussing how to fit Mr. Khashoggi’s body into suitcases. When Mr. Khashoggi reached the consulate, one of the agents referred to him as the “sacrificial animal.”
After his death, no effort was made to resuscitate him.
The United Nations investigator also reported a vast effort by Saudi officials to cover up the killing, including by forensically cleansing the crime scene before allowing Turkish investigators access to it.
On Twitter, Fahrettin Altun, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, wrote that the leaders who had ordered the operation had been “granted immunity.”
“To claim that a handful of intelligence operatives committed this murder is to mock the world’s intelligence — to say the least,” he wrote.
Although no evidence has been made public that directly implicates Prince Mohammed in the killing, an assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency found that he had probably ordered the operation, which employed two private jets, two diplomatic facilities and the team of agents.
Prince Mohammed has said that he played no role in the killing but that he bore some responsibility for it because it happened on his watch.
An investigation by Agnès Callamard, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions for the United Nations human rights agency, concluded that there was “credible evidence, warranting further investigation, of high-level Saudi officials’ individual liability, including the crown prince’s.”
On Monday, Ms. Callamard criticized the verdicts, saying on Twitter that the prosecutor had ignored evidence of premeditation and did not treat the killing as sanctioned by the state, which required holding top officials accountable.
“Bottom line: the hit-men are guilty, sentenced to death,” she wrote. “The masterminds not only walk free. They have barely been touched by the investigation and the trial. That is the antithesis of justice. It is a mockery.”
The Saudi public prosecutor’s office said Monday that it had examined 31 suspects and arrested 21 of them. Of those, 11 were put on trial. Five men were sentenced to death for their direct involvement in Mr. Khashoggi’s killing. Three others were given a total of 24 years in prison for covering up the crime and violating other laws.
On Twitter, one of Mr. Khashoggi’s adult children, Salah Khashoggi, who lives in Saudi Arabia, praised the Saudi judges as fair.
“We confirm our faith in the Saudi judiciary at all levels and in its giving us justice and ensuring fairness,” he wrote.
Months after the killing, he and Mr. Khashoggi’s other children received tens of thousands of dollars and millions in real estate from the government to compensate for their father’s murder.
Turkish officials have identified the men they believe were inside the consulate when Mr. Khashoggi was killed, but it was unclear if they were the same men sentenced on Monday because the Saudis did not release their names. The kingdom did, however, identify three suspects who were not sentenced.
Ahmed Asseri, the deputy head of Saudi intelligence, who Saudi officials initially said had overseen the operation, was released without charge.
Mohammed al-Otaibi, the Saudi consul in Istanbul who gave reporters a tour of the consulate days after Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, was also released.
And Saud al-Qahtani, a top aide to Prince Mohammed, was not put on trial because the prosecutor’s office said there was a lack of evidence against him. The exonerations of Mr. al-Otaibi and Mr. al-Qahtani are likely to rankle the United States, which imposed sanctions on them for their roles in the killing.
Mohammed al-Otaibi, the Saudi consul in Istanbul who gave reporters a tour of the consulate days after Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, was also released.
And Saud al-Qahtani, a top aide to Prince Mohammed, was not put on trial because the prosecutor’s office said there was a lack of evidence against him. The exonerations of Mr. al-Otaibi and Mr. al-Qahtani are likely to rankle the United States, which imposed sanctions on them for their roles in the killing.