Turkish journalist covering story from beginning tells The Media Line it is clearly an effort to place blame as far away from throne as possible
A Saudi Arabian court has handed down death sentences for five of the 11 people being tried in connection with the brutal killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2, 2018, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Three defendants were given jail sentences, and three others were exonerated.
Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post and just a few days shy of his sixtieth birthday, had gone to the consulate for official paperwork he needed for his upcoming wedding.
The sounds of his strangulation and dismemberment were released bit by bit to Turkish media outlets, giving the impression that Turkey’s intelligence services somehow had been listening in. This led Riyadh to back down from its firm denial of complicity – and that Khashoggi had even been killed – to an admission that there was indeed a killing, although it had started with a fistfight and simply got out of hand.
Observers believe it was really a case of premeditated murder or a botched attempt to bring Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his self-imposed exile, and to punish him for badmouthing the kingdom. No parts of his body have been found.
For more background on the verdict and sentencing, The Media Line spoke with Yusuf Erim, chief political and Middle East analyst for TRT, the Turkish public broadcaster, as he stood outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where the Khashoggi killing took place.
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