ISTANBUL – Turkey on Friday opened a trial for the death of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, accusing 20 Saudi nationals in absentia, in a case that friends and human rights officials welcomed as an important step to advance in the search for justice in his murder. .
None of the accused was present at the trial, Saudi Arabia refused to extradite them, and it was unclear whether the court could legally pursue the case without the accused.
However, the start of the process was seen as a sign that Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who personally knew Mr. Khashoggi and was outraged that the murder took place in Istanbul, are determined to prosecute those responsible and even involve Saudi Arabia. day-to-day ruler of the kingdom, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Khashoggi was killed when he visited the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 to obtain documents allowing him to marry his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. He never left the meeting. His body was dismembered, and his remains were never found.
Khashoggi, 59, a Saudi dissident, fled the kingdom and wrote columns for The Washington Post criticizing his country’s leadership. His murder undermined Prince Mohammed’s image as a young ruler who works to open up the kingdom’s economy and society.
The Saudi government has prosecuted 11 men for carrying out the murder and sentenced five of them to death in December, but found no high-level perpetrators. The Turkish prosecution accuses 18 men of carrying out murders with monstrous intent and inflicting serious torments.
Two others, both close collaborators with Prince Mohammed: Ahmed al-Asiri, the former Saudi deputy chief of general intelligence; and Saud al-Qahtani, a former aide to the crown prince, were charged with inciting murder with monstrous intent and inflicting serious torment.
Cengiz described in court testimony how he first realized that something was wrong while waiting for Khashoggi outside the consulate.
“Someone between the ages of 25 and 30 came out,” he said, according to Turkish journalists inside the court. “He had a fearful, anxiety-inducing facial expression.”
“He said ‘I checked the rooms, no one is there,’ but he couldn’t look me in the face,” he added. “At that time, I experienced a fear that I had never experienced before in my life. It wasn’t just fear, it was horror. “
She named a consulate employee named Ekrem Sultan as the person who had called Mr. Khashoggi to attend a meeting on October 2. “They summoned him with great treason and deception,” he said.
“When they killed Jamal, they hurt something very big,” he concluded. “They damage the image of Islam and justice.”
Yasin Aktay, adviser to Mr. Erdogan and close friend of Mr. Khashoggi, described how Mr. Khashoggi’s criticism of Prince Mohammed and his policies, in particular his persecution of the war in Yemen and the boycott of Qatar, forced him to flee from Saudi Arabia. Arabia
Khashoggi’s role as head of the advocacy group Democracy for the Arab World Now further irritated the Saudi leadership, Aktay said. “The activities of the association angered the Saudi Arabian government,” he said. “For them, democracy is like a curse.”
Mr. Aktay said that Mr. al-Qahtani had contacted Mr. Khashoggi on WhatsApp and told him that he needed to stop talking and return to Saudi Arabia.
Aktay said he had advised his friend not to go to the Oct. 2 meeting at the Saudi Consulate. “I said it could be a cheat, but he didn’t take my warning seriously,” he said.
Seven other Turkish witnesses who worked at the consulate also appeared on Friday. Several workers said they were ordered not to go to the consul’s residence, a building across the street from the consulate, that day.
Zeki Demir, a technician, said he was called to the consul’s residence at 2 p.m. on Oct. 2 to turn on the gas oven in the garden used for barbecues. “There was an air of panic,” he said. “It was as if they wanted me to leave as soon as possible. I left after turning on the oven.
Turkish lawyers representing the defendants said they had been unable to contact them for inquiries, but said that their clients denied the claims.
The board of judges announced that the next hearing would be held on November 24.
The Turkish trial offers the closest opportunity for justice available in the Khashoggi murder, said Agnès Callamard, the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, who arrived in Istanbul on Thursday to attend.
“It will give a different meaning and a more rigorous approach to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, which is what we should expect from a trial,” he said on the eve of the trial.
Despite Turkey’s reputation in recent years for the misapplication of court rules (critics have cited the lack of independence of the justice system and abuse of the rights of the accused, among other criticisms), Ms. Callamard said he hoped the process would reveal more about the chain of command in the murder.
Ms. Callamard concluded after a five-month investigation that Mr. Khashoggi’s death had been carefully planned and supported by high-level Saudi officials. CIA officials have concluded that Prince Mohammed ordered the murder.
Callamard said he hoped the trial would reveal what investigators had found on Mr. Khashoggi’s cell phone and computer, and whether the devices had been hacked, which could indicate an intention to harm him.
She said the process had a broader meaning.
“It is important for the rest of the world as well: we have to continue to insist that no one can kill a journalist and get away with it lightly,” he said. “We have to continue to insist that he pay a price,” he added of Prince Mohammed.
The Turkish indictment alleges that Khashoggi was “regarded by Saudi officials and authorities as a threat against the Saudi Arabian government, due to his articles, speeches at the meetings and conferences he joined, and his dissident acts for the change of government ” . “The intention of the Saudi authorities was to bring him back to the kingdom and, if he did not agree, to kill him, the indictment states.
In issuing the indictment in March, the Istanbul prosecutor said in a statement that it was based on evidence from the defendant’s cell phone location records, records of his entry and exit from Turkey, and his presence at the consulate. Evidence was also obtained from searches of his hotel rooms, the consulate and the consul’s residence; Mr. Khashoggi’s cell phone, laptop and iPad; and from witness statements, the statement added.
The indictment names 54 witnesses, including 26 Turkish members of the consulate’s staff and the consul’s residence, including drivers, employees, translators, cooks, cleaners and a tea server.
Erdogan is waging a power war at various political and regional levels with the Saudi crown prince, although he has made a point of showing respect to the Saudi king, and will seek a verdict that would harm his rival, said Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkey Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“He will use the trial to embarrass the crown prince by coming to a very different set of conclusions,” Cagaptay said, “and he will also have his own verdict so that the case does not end with the Saudi verdict.”
