Head of negotiating team ordered the killing: Saudi

Five people who confessed to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Turkey face the death penalty, said Saudi Public Prosecutor saying that the head of a team tasked with convincing Jamal Khashoggi to return to Saudi ordered the killing.

During a press conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh, the Public Prosecution’s spokesperson explained that the team failed to persuade Khashoggi to return home, after which the head of the negotiation team concluded that it would not be possible to transfer the victim by force to the safe location in case the negotiations with him to return failed.

Investigators found that the head of the negotiation team formed by the former Deputy President of the General Intelligence Presidency has ordered the killing of the journalist on October 2, in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. The prosecutor has requested the death penalty for the five who “are charged with ordering and committing the crime and for the appropriate sentences for the other indicted individuals,” an official statement published by state news agency SPA said.

It said a total of 21 people are in custody in connection with the killing, 11 of whom have been indicted. The statement by Al Arabia, however, said that the names of those indicted cannot be disclosed as it is against the system of criminal procedure The murder was reportedly planned on September 29 after disabling the surveillance cameras at the consulate.

Khashoggi, the spokesperson said, was murdered and dismembered following a physical altercation and the dismembered body was handed over to a local collaborator. A sketch of this collaborator has been created for handing over to the Turkish authorities. The spokesperson also said that the suspects gave an untruthful report to the former deputy intelligence chief, and denied killing Khashoggi in the beginning.