Saudi top prosecutor seeks death penalty in Khashoggi murder

Saudi Arabia’s Attorney General has said the kingdom is seeking the death penalty for five people involved in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saud al-Mojeb told a news conference in Riyadh on Thursday that five men ordered drugging and dismemberment of Khashoggi after “talks with him failed” inside the country’s consulate in Istanbul.

He added that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, was not implicated in the gruesome murder that caused global outrage.

Khashoggi, a critic of MBS’s supposed reform programme, was killed after entering the consulate on October 2.

Mojeb said Khashoggi died from a lethal injection and his body was dismembered and taken out of the building.

Saudi authorities initially stated the journalist left the consulate, before backtracking and admitting on October 20 he was killed by “rogue” operatives.

Last month, Istanbul’s chief prosecutor said that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate and that his body was dismembered, in the first official comments on the case.

The kingdom has said it arrested 18 people and dismissed five senior government officials as part of an investigation into Khashoggi’s killing.

Ankara, meanwhile, seeks extradition of the suspects.