Turkey got rid of the cumbersome Khashoggi file on Thursday by returning it to Saudi Arabia, more than three years after the tragic assassination of the Saudi journalist in Istanbul. Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi who was waiting for him outside the Saudi consulate on the day of the murder, October 2, 2018, immediately announced the decision of his lawyers to appeal.
The final hearing of the trial in absentia opened in July 2020 of twenty-six accused Saudis lasted a few minutes before the Istanbul court judge expressed the decision to close the case. The suspense was very limited: the Turkish Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag had announced that he had given a positive opinion to the request of the prosecutor, who wanted to “close and transfer the file” to Ryad.
For Turkey, which seeks to reconnect with the Saudi kingdom it needs to support its struggling economy, it was urgent to close this affair which pollutes their relations. “We are not ruled here by a family, like in Saudi Arabia. We have a judicial system that responds to citizens’ grievances: as such, we will appeal,” Cengiz quickly told reporters outside the court.
For one of his lawyers, Me Gokmen Baspinar, “this decision to transfer the file goes against the law” and “constitutes a violation of Turkish sovereignty”.
“In One Sentence”
Rights organizations have in recent days denounced a first-class burial at the request of the Saudi authorities, with the Khashoggi case constituting the ultimate obstacle to rapprochement between the two Sunni regional powers.
“The court agreed to transfer the case to Saudi Arabia like this, in one sentence, without even (notifying) the lawyers of the rejection of their requests”, was indignant on Twitter Milena Büyüm, a representative of Amnesty International in Turkey.
For Erol Önderoglu, Reporters Without Borders representative in Istanbul, with this decision, “Turkey is sending a frightening signal regarding the respect it gives to freedom of the press”. On October 2, 2018, the 59-year-old Saudi journalist, a critical columnist for the American daily The Washington Post, was murdered and his body dismembered inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul where he had come to ask for a document necessary for his marriage. , according to Turkey.
The Istanbul prosecutor had defended his position by arguing that “the case is dragging on because the orders of the court cannot be executed, the defendants being foreign nationals”.
A “political” and “premeditated” murder
On the day of the murder, Ms Cengiz was waiting for the victim on the street, but her fiancé never reappeared and his remains were never found. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan then promised to “do everything” to elucidate this “political” and “premeditated” murder, which he described as a “barbaric assassination”.
But Ankara, in the grip of an economic crisis linked to the collapse of its currency and high inflation of more than 60% over the last twelve months, is seeking rapprochement with the Saudi monarchy. The Head of State, who for several months has been multiplying reconciliation initiatives with regional powers – United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Israel among others -, announced in early January an imminent visit to Saudi Arabia. However, he does not seem to have received an invitation yet.
A US intelligence report accuses Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of having “validated” the assassination, carried out by a commando of agents from Saudi Arabia. After denying the murder, Ryad ended up saying that it had been committed by Saudi agents who acted alone.