Khashoggi murder trial in Riyadh lacked accountability, UN rights office says

Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, called the Saudi court’s ruling on Monday “a complete mockery of justice” that didn’t answer the most basic questions about who planned and ordered his murder. 

Before his death, the 59-year-old columnist was a vocal critic of the Saudi government, in particular Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The CIA later concluded that he had likely ordered the assassination. 

The Saudi government insists Khashoggi was killed in a “rogue” operation without the royal’s direct knowledge. In a September 2019 interview with CBS, the crown prince denied giving the order, but said he took “full responsibility.”

Last year, a United Nations investigation found that Saudi Arabia was responsible for the “deliberate, premeditated execution” of Khashoggi and that there was “credible evidence” to investigate the kingdom’s crown prince and other top officials.

UN Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial Killings, Agnes Callamard, said that the Saudi verdicts on Monday carried “no legal or moral legitimacy.”

“The high-level officials who organized and embraced the execution of Jamal Khashoggi have walked free from the start,” Callamard wrote on Twitter.  “These verdicts cannot be allowed to whitewash what happened.”