Turkish justice decided Thursday, April 7, unsurprisingly, to return to Saudi Arabia the file of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist murdered in October 2018 in the premises of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi, has announced an appeal.
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“We have decided to transfer the file to Saudi Arabia“Said the judge of the Istanbul court where the trial in absentia of 26 Saudi defendants had been held since July 2020.
“There are no prosecutions in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi authorities have already closed the trial and decided to acquit many suspects”
Me Gokmen Baspinar, lawyer for the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi
The suspense was very limited: the Turkish Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag had given a positive opinion at the request of the prosecutor, who wished “close and transfer the filein Riyadh. The murder of Jamal Khashoggi, killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate, poisons relations between the two Sunni regional powers.
Turkish desire for rapprochement with Saudi Arabia
But Turkey, in the grip of an economic crisis, has been seeking a rapprochement with Saudi Arabia for several months. For one of the lawyers for Khashoggi’s fiancée, Me Gokmen Baspinar, “this decision to transfer the file is against the law” and “constitutes a violation of Turkish sovereignty“. “There are no prosecutions in Saudi Arabia. Saudi authorities have already closed the trial and decided to acquit many suspects“, he recalled, specifying to have deposited”an appeal to the Administrative Court of Ankara against the decision of the Ministry“. For another of the defenders, Me Ali Ceylan, this decision comes down to “throw the lamb into the mouth of the wolf“.
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The fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting for Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabian consulate where he had come to pick up papers on the day of the murder, appealed. “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“, she declared to the press at the exit of the court of Istanbul.
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