Turkey no longer wants to hear about the Jamal Khashoggi affair, named after this Saudi journalist, critic of the power of the royal family, assassinated and dismembered in 2018 in Istanbul. The prosecutor of the city court, before which the trial in absentia of 26 Saudi nationals accused of the crime has been held since 2020, asks this Thursday to “close” the file and transfer it to Saudi Arabia.
A request immediately qualified as “terrible news” by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) association in Istanbul, which assures that it is responding to a request from Riyadh “filed March 13”. Erol Önderoglu, RSF representative in Turkey, elaborates: “Transferring the case to Riyadh, where the world has already witnessed a charade of justice, is terrible news for those seeking justice for the journalist.” The Turkish prosecutor defended his position by arguing that “the case drags on because the orders of the court cannot be carried out, the defendants being foreign nationals”, as reported by the private news agency DHA.
‘Insist on justice’
On Twitter, Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, also pointed out that the prosecutor was going with Riyadh: “At today’s hearing, the prosecutor requested, in accordance with the Saudi request, the transfer of the file to Saudi Arabia and its finalization in Turkey.” Hatice Cengiz recently urged Turkey, her country, to “to insist that justice be done”, she who called at the end of February 2021 at “punish without delay” the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed ben Salmane, whose responsibility in the assassination of the journalist had been pointed out in a report declassified by the United States. American intelligence has in fact estimated that he had “valid” an operation aimed at “capture or [le] to kill”.
During today’s hearing of Cemal’s murder case, the prosecutor asked, accordingly to the Saudi demand, for the transfer of the file to #SaudiArabia and the finalization of it in #Turkey. The court will ask the view of Turkish Justice Ministry.#Khashoggi #JusticeForJamal
— Hatice Cengiz / خديجة (@mercan_resifi) March 31, 2022
The 59-year-old Saudi journalist, contributor to the Washington Post, was murdered and his body cut up on October 2, 2018 inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to obtain a document, according to Turkey. That day, his fiancée was waiting for him on the street outside the premises, but Khashoggi never reappeared and his remains were never found.
“Towards the normalization of relations”
Turkey, seeking to renew the ties with Riyadh it needs to support its struggling economy, is trying to put behind it this affair which poisons relations between the two Sunni regional powers. Ankara is indeed in the grip of an economic crisis and inflation at its highest for twenty years (nearly 55% over the last twelve months). Relations between Ankara and Riyadh began to deteriorate in 2017 during the blockade of Qatar, a close ally of Turkey, decreed by Saudi Arabia and followed by the Emirates.
After the prosecutor’s decision to bury the Khashoggi trial, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu admitted in a television interview on Thursday morning that “important steps towards the normalization of relations [avec l’Arabie Saoudite] are in class”. “Judicial cooperation has reached a better level”, he rejoiced.
The trial of 26 Saudi nationals accused by Turkey of having assassinated Jamal Khashoggi opened before the Istanbul court in July 2020, in the absence of the interested parties. The next hearing remains for the time scheduled for April 7.