U. S. Based World-Famous Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered on 2nd of October 2018, who was also a critic of Saudi Arabian government. The incident happened as he walked into the country’s consulate in Istanbul. Since this murder was committed regular interrogations have taken place and even narratives emerged regarding the when and hows of the unfortunate event had taken place and how was he killed or murdered.
However, United Nations special rapporteur previously concluded that Khashoggi was “the victim of a deliberate, premeditated execution, an extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible”. For more than two weeks, post incident, Saudi Arabia consistently denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s fate, while the whole world was watching the leaked videos of Khashoggi related videos of the embassy and agents and killing events. There was a huge outcry by the media around the world on Khashoggi’s murder
Only recently, after much deeper investigations five people have been sentenced to death over the murder. Many reports stated that the murder was pre meditated but after holding nine sessions, the trial concluded that there was no previous intent by those found guilty to murder, according to state the state TV of Saudi Arabia.
The trials of the accused were carried out in near-total secrecy, though a handful of diplomats, including from Turkey, as well as members of Khashoggi’s family, were allowed to attend the court trial sessions.
Of the 11 unnamed individuals indicted in the case, five were sentenced to death, while three face jail terms totalling 24 years, and the others were acquitted according to the court documents and sources spoken on the condition of anonymity.
Audio recordings, CCTV footage and forensic evidence all pointed towards a staggering and gruesome story of murder; Khashoggi was killed by a hit squad and then dismembered, the consulate was scrubbed clean and his body was disposed off. The whereabouts of his dismembered body are still unknown to the media, general public and the world.
A body-double wearing the dead Khashoggi’s clothes exited the consulate in what had all the hallmarks of a carefully planned operation.
After weeks of repeated denials that it had anything to do with his disappearance, the kingdom eventually acknowledged that its officials were behind the gruesome murder of Khashoggi.
The fact that several high-profile people, who were suspected of the crime but have not been charged raises the questions of viability and reliability of the trial and the Saudi Arabian Government and its involvement.
According to a news conference in Riyadh, Saud al-Qahtani, widely regarded as the mastermind of the operation at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was cleared by the court of all involvements on Monday. Prosecutors said there would be no charges brought against him because “no evidence” was found to exist against Saud.
At the time of the murder Qahtani was Crown Prince and Mohammed bin Salman’s senior adviser. He was solely handling and directing media operations and an online campaign against the government’s critics, including Khashoggi, which makes him blameworthy for the crime.
The five who have been given death sentence are probably scapegoats to hide the real faces behind this act of killing a journalist.
The court’s decision is very much at odds with what US intelligence agencies found out about the murder. The US Treasury Department sanctioned Qahtani, along with 16 other Saudi officials a month later, after the killing, describing him as “part of the planning and execution of the operation.”
The former deputy head of the Saudi intelligence service, Ahmed al-Assiri, who was close to the Crown Prince, was also cleared by the court on Monday. However, he is the second prominent Saudi official who was under investigation and was thought to have been in direct charge of the conspiracy to lure Khashoggi to the consulate general’s office or Saudi Embassy.
The whole idea behind keeping the names undisclosed, of those who have been death sentenced throws more light on the intentions of keeping high profile officials out of the crime circle. There are rumours that if the names are not disclosed, may be the death sentence will be executed or not and may this court’s all the trials are just a crown oriented drama, because crown is the master of Saudi Arabia.
Khashoggi’s sons accepted the verdict, but others were less impressed. Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director, said it was a whitewash on the whole case, investigation and judges and court has followed the directions of the crown as the crown is the king and master of the country. “The verdict fails to address the Saudi authorities’ involvement in this devastating crime or clarify the location of Jamal Khashoggi’s remains,” Amnesty said in a statement.
The human rights group said, “only an international, independent and impartial investigation can serve justice for journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
This incident has not only disguised the justice but also resulted in even more injustice to those who have been prosecuted and given death sentence for a crime that they probably did not commit and became another victims of the crown’s dirty intentions and dirty plans to kill their criticism.
This is not the first time that this kind of game has been played by the society, but its only another display of whitewashing and pancaking the “image” of creamy layers of the society.
The verdict by the court seems to make the case more tangled than resolved.
