A Turkish court has decided to drop the murder case involving Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and hand it over to authorities in Saudi Arabia. The prosecutor had previously filed a request to that effect.
According to the prosecutor, the request was made because the case was “dragging” and came at a time when Turkey was trying to strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia. In Istanbul, 26 Saudi suspects were tried in absentia for the murder of Khashoggi.
The 59-year-old victim entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 to arrange papers for his upcoming wedding. He was not seen again after that. The body of Khashoggi, who wrote for the American newspaper The Washington Post, has not been found to this day.
Human rights organizations were already critical before the court’s decision. According to Amnesty International, Turkey deliberately returns the case “to those responsible”. The organization’s secretary-general, Agnès Callamard, investigated the murder in 2019 as UN rapporteur.
She said there was “credible evidence” of the involvement of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud. He has been ranked as the most powerful man in Saudi Arabia since 2017.
