Saudi prosecutor seeks death sentences as Khashoggi murder trial opens

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s attorney general sought the death penalty for five of 11 defendants charged with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as their high-profile trial opened in Riyadh on Thursday. All 11 accused were present with their lawyers at the first session of the trial, the attorney general said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. Saudi Arabia had twice submitted formal requests for evidence from Turkey — where Khashoggi was murdered inside the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate on October 2 — but had received no response, the statement added. The names of the defendants have not been officially released. Five top officials in Saudi Arabia — including royal court insider Saud al-Qahtani — were sacked over the Khashoggi murder, but there is no proof they are among those charged. Khashoggi, a contributor to the Washington Post, was murdered in what Riyadh called a “rogue” operation, tipping the kingdom into one of its worst diplomatic crises.