One of the Turkish advocates asked a court on Thursday to stop the trial in absentia of a Saudi suspect on the charges of killing a journalist ‘Jamal Khashoggi’ at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and transfer the case to the Saudi government.
Furthermore, the court stated that it would ask the court for the justice Ministry’s opinion on the request. It set the next hearing for April 7.
The court of Istanbul put 26 Saudis on trial in absentia – in which two were close to the kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. However, no progress has been made till now and in the past two years.
According to Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz, the legal process was stalled due to Saudi Arabia’s failure to cooperate because “they preferred to stay away from the issue completely instead of cooperating.”
The Saudi government has always insisted that this is a legal process carried out behind a back door, has been completed, and there is no need for further arrests. In 2020, Saudi Arabia jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years over the killing in trial critics called lacked transparency. None of the defenders was named.
Following the Saudi trial, the Turkish court asked the Justice Ministry in November to send a letter to Riyadh asking about those sentenced in the kingdom to avoid the risk of being punished twice.
As per the Turkish lawyer’s point of view that Saudi authorities responded by asking for the case to be transferred to them and for the so-called red notices against the defendants to be lifted.
The prosecutor said that Riyadh also pledged to evaluate the accusations against the 26 defendants if the case was transferred.
As per the prosecutor, the request should be accepted because the defendants were foreign citizens, the arrest warrants and red notices could not be executed, and their statements could not be taken, effectively putting the case on hold or suspending it.
The assassination of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018 exacerbated already strained relations between the two regional powers and rivals, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
The accused, who was 59 years old, was a Saudi insider turned critic who wrote for The Washington Post and had gone to the consulate to obtain documents for his wedding to fiancee Hatice Cengiz. He was dismembered in the consulate, and his remains have never been found.
The assassination sparked international outrage that continues to reverberate, with Western espionage agencies accusing MBS of authorizing the killing.
The murder had strained relations between Ankara and Riyadh. At the time, President Recep Tayyip Erdoan said the order to kill “came from the highest levels” of the Saudi government, though he did not name the powerful crown prince.
Nonetheless, Turkey has spent the last two years attempting to mend relations with regional rivals such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Erdoan has stated again that Turkey wishes to maximize cooperation with Egypt and the Gulf nations “on a win-win basis.”
The president recently mentioned the steps taken to normalise relations with Saudi Arabia, stating that Ankara aims to improve bilateral relations with Riyadh.