RIYADH
A court in Saudi Arabia on Monday sentenced five people to death for the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year by a team of Saudi agents. Saudi Arabia’s state-run Al-Ekhbariya TV channel reported that three others were sentenced to prison. All can appeal the verdicts. According to a statement issued by the Saudi public prosecutor shared by Arab News, 11 people had been indicted by the court out of which three were acquitted. The court handed death penalties to five people for “committing and directly participating in the murder of the victim”, while three people were convicted for “their role in covering up the crime and violating the law” and were handed different sentences amounting to a total of 24 years in prison. The statement said that 31 people were included in the investigation of the case, out of which 21 were arrested, while 10 had been called for questioning as the authorities did not have grounds to detain them. The kingdom has carried out the trials of the accused in near-total secrecy. On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi had arrived at the consulate in Istanbul seeking documents for his upcoming wedding, when Saudi officials inside the building overpowered and killed him.
