Jamal Khashoggi

SAUDI ARABIA: DEATH SENTENCES COMMUTED IN JAMAL KHASHOGGI MURDER CASE

September 8, 2020:

A court in Saudi Arabia on 7 September 2020 commuted the death sentences handed to five people convicted over the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Prosecutors said they were given 20-year jail terms after the journalist's family decided to pardon them.
Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government, was killed inside the kingdom's consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul by a team of Saudi agents.
The Saudi government said the journalist was killed in a "rogue operation" and the following year Saudi prosecutors put 11 unnamed individuals on trial.
The Saudi public prosecution concluded that the murder was not pre-meditated.
It said the killing was ordered by the head of a "negotiations team" sent to Istanbul to bring Khashoggi back to the kingdom "by means of persuasion" or, if that failed, "by force".
In December 2019, the Riyadh Criminal Court sentenced five people to death for "committing and directly participating in the murder of the victim". Three others were handed prison sentences totalling 24 years for "covering up this crime and violating the law".
Three people were found not guilty, including Saudi Arabia's former deputy intelligence chief, Ahmad Asiri.
Saud al-Qahtani, a former senior adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed, was investigated by the Saudi public prosecution but not charged.
This May, Khashoggi's son Salah announced that he and his brothers were "pardoning those who killed our father, seeking reward from God almighty", accepting the contention that the murder was not premeditated. That paved the way under Saudi law for a reprieve for the five facing execution.
On 7 September, the Saudi public prosecution announced that the Riyadh Criminal Court had sentenced five of those convicted in January to 20 years in prison, and that the three others had received sentences of between seven and 10 years.