Turkey prosecutor asks to pass Khashoggi case to S Arabia

ISTANBUL

A Turkish prosecutor on March 31 asked an Istanbul court to dismiss a case into the gruesome murder of Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi and transfer it to Saudi Arabia, his Turkish fiancee confirmed.

The relations with Saudi Arabia worsened after the 2018 killing of Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

"The prosecutor asked, accordingly to the Saudi demand, for the transfer of the file to #SaudiArabia and the finalization of it in #Turkey," Hatice Cengiz tweeted after the hearing on Thursday in Istanbul’s main court.

"The court will ask the view of Turkish Justice Ministry. #Khashoggi #JusticeForJamal," she commented.

The prosecutor said, according to the private DHA news agency, that the case "has been dragging because the court orders cannot be executed on the grounds that the suspects are foreign nationals".

On October 2, 2018, 59-year-old Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to file paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancee.

According to US and Turkish officials, a waiting Saudi hit squad strangled him and dismembered his body, which has never been retrieved.

The murder sparked international outrage that continues to reverberate, with Western intelligence agencies accusing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of authorizing the killing.

The crown prince has said he accepts Saudi Arabia’s overall responsibility but denies a personal link, with the kingdom saying it was the doing of agents who had gone "rogue".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at the time that the order to kill "came from the highest levels" of the Saudi government without pointing the finger of blame at the crown prince.

Unsatisfied with the trial in Saudi Arabia, Turkey has launched its own investigation into the murder and put 26 Saudis on trial in absentia including two who are close to the crown prince.