Prosecutor exonerates prince Salman in Khashoggi’s murder

Saudi Arabia on Thursday called for the death penalty against five people accused of murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate, but absolved the crown prince of any blame.

Khashoggi, the Washington Post contributor and critic of Crown Prince Mohammed-bin Salman, was drugged and his body dismembered, a spokesman for the public prosecutor said, in the first Saudi confirmation of how the journalist died.

But spokesman Shaalan al-Shaalan denied Prince Mohammed had any knowledge of the killing. The journalist’s body parts were then handed over to an agent outside the consulate grounds, Shaalan said.

The prosecutor has requested the death penalty for the five who "are charged with ordering and committing the crime and for the appropriate sentences for the other indicted individuals", Shaalan said.

The announcement follows huge international outcry over the killing of the 59-year-old Khashoggi, last seen entering the consulate on October 2 to obtain paperwork for his marriage.

The journalist went into self-imposed exile in the United States in 2017 after falling out with Prince Mohammed. Implicated in the murder are the once-powerful deputy chief of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence, General Ahmed al-Assiri, who gave the order to repatriate Khashoggi, and an unnamed "head of the negotiating team" who flew to the Istanbul consulate had ordered his murder, Shaalan said.

The prosecution said it now has 21 people in custody, 11 of whom have been indicted with investigations to continue into the others. The kingdom previously said it had sacked two top aides to the crown prince who were known to be part of his tight inner circle -- Assiri and royal court media adviser Saud al-Qahtani.

Qahtani has been banned from travel and is now under investigation, the prosecutor’s office said, but did not reveal the fate of Assiri. "This is clearly an attempt to display to the world that a semblance of accountability is being applied in Riyadh, but the question that has been asked will continue to be asked," said H.A. Hellyer, senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute in London.

"Who gave the actual order to these senior officials?" On Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Saudi crown prince in a phone call that Washington would hold accountable all those involved.

"The secretary emphasised that the United States will hold all of those involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi accountable, and that Saudi Arabia must do the same," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.