Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancé asked for justice in a Turkish court on Friday, as 20 Saudi officials were tried in absentia for the murder of the writer and activist two years ago at the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul.
Hatice Cengiz spoke at the opening of the trial and said her fiancé was lured to death for “great treason and deception,” the state agency Anadolu reported.
Cengiz had to stop several times to prevent his voice from breaking, The Guardian reported.
“This has been an exhausting process both mentally and morally,” Cengiz reportedly said speaking outside of court after the three-hour hearing.
She expressed her confidence in the Turkish judicial system, according to the BBC.
“Our search for justice will continue in Turkey, as well as everywhere else we can,” said Cengiz.
Two former aides to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has denied any involvement, and 18 other Saudi citizens have been charged in connection with the murder of the activist and columnist for the Washington Post. The defendants were not present at the trial because Saudi Arabia rejected Turkish requests for their extradition.
Eleven of the men were tried behind closed doors in Saudi Arabia, but the proceedings in Riyadh have been widely criticized as money laundering.
THE PRINCE OF THE SAUDI CROWN ONCE SAID KHASHOGGI COULD BE SILENCED WITH A BULLET
In December, five of the people were sentenced to death, while three others were convicted of covering up the crime and sentenced to 24 years in prison combined.
UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard, who concluded that Khashoggi was “the victim of a deliberate and premeditated execution” for which the Saudi state was responsible, attended Friday’s hearing in Turkey, the BBC reported.
“We have not transferred the murder of Jamal Khashoggi to a formal setting that the international community can recognize, because the trial in Saudi Arabia cannot have credibility and legitimacy,” said Callamard.
She went on to say, “Here, for the first time, we have the hit men charged and we have some of those who have committed the crime.”
Hatice Cengiz, center-to-camera, the fiancée of the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi, speaks to members of the media in front of a court in Istanbul on Friday July 3, 2020.
(AP Photo / Emrah Gurel)
The journalist’s remains have not yet been found and the trial in Turkey could provide new information, evidence and knowledge.
Khashoggi went to the Istanbul consulate in October 2018 for an appointment to collect documents that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancee, but he never left.
Cengiz was waiting for Khashoggi outside the consulate and notified authorities when he did not leave.
On Friday, the court also heard testimony from six local Turkish employees of the Saudi Arabian Consulate, most saying they did not see Khashoggi. An employee said she had a brief conversation with him when she first entered the building, however, she did not see him again after that encounter.
A team of 15 Saudi agents, including someone who worked for the crown prince’s office and a coroner, had flown to Turkey to meet Khashoggi inside the consulate. Turkey, a rival to Saudi Arabia, had apparently upset the Saudi Consulate and has shared the audio of the murder with the CIA, among other agencies. Turkish authorities allege that the journalist was killed and then dismembered with a bone saw.
Initially, Saudi Arabia provided changing accounts of Khashoggi’s disappearance. After audio leaks in Turkey, the kingdom was finally settled on the explanation that it was killed by corrupt officials in a fight.
According to a 2018 report, the CIA determined that Khashoggi’s death was on Salman’s order.
Before his murder, Khashoggi had written critically about Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the Washington Post. He lived in exile in the United States for about a year while Salman oversaw an offensive in Saudi Arabia against human rights activists, writers, and critics of the war in Yemen.
The trial was adjourned until the end of November. Turkish prosecutors have demanded that the accused be sentenced to life in prison, if convicted.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
In May, Khashoggi’s relatives said they had forgiven his killers. The pardon gave legal relief to the five government agents who were sentenced to death in Riyadh.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
