Saudi sentences five to death, three to jail in Khashoggi murder case

Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor said on December 23 that five people had been sentenced to death and three others to jail terms totalling 24 years in the case of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in October last year.

He also said that Saud al-Qahtani, a former high-profile Saudi royal adviser, was investigated but not charged and was released.

The murder of the Saudi journalist hurt the reputation of the Gulf nation's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had otherwise tried to portray himself as a liberal ruler of a conservative nation. However, according to a report by the Washington Post, the CIA concluded that the crown prince was directly involved in the ordering of Khashoggi's assassination.

US-based columnist for the Washington Post Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 to get necessary paperwork ahead of his marriage. There, he was reportedly confronted by Saudi agents who murdered him and dismembered his body, the remains of which have still not been found.

Khashoggi was often critical of the Saudi government and criticised the policies of Mohammed bin Salman. The 59-year-old journalist used to close to the Saudi royal family, but he went into self-imposed exile in the United States in 2017 after he fell out of favour with them.

(With inputs from Reuters)