Khashoggi trial fell short on transparency and accountability: UN

GENEVA • The Saudi trial into the killing of critic Jamal Khashoggi lacked transparency and fell short on assigning accountability for the crime, the United Nations human rights office said yesterday.

A court in Saudi Arabia on Monday jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years over the 2018 murder of Mr Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, state media reported, four months after his family forgave his killers and enabled death sentences to be set aside.

Mr Rupert Colville, spokesman for the rights office, noted that the UN opposes the death penalty. He told a Geneva briefing: "This is a case where there has not been proper transparency in the justice process - those responsible should be prosecuted and given sentences commensurate with the crime."

A critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Mr Khashoggi was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2, 2018, where he had gone to obtain documents for his impending wedding. His body was reportedly dismembered and removed from the building and his remains have not been found.

The murder caused a global uproar and tarnished the reformist image of Prince Mohammed, the kingdom's de facto ruler.

The Khashoggi family's lawyer, Mr Motasem Khashoggi, told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the family welcomes the "fair and deterrent" ruling and is satisfied by it.

But Mr Khashoggi's fiancee said the eight jailed were not the only ones responsible for the murder.

"The Saudi authorities are closing the case without the world knowing the truth of who is responsible for Jamal's murder," Ms Hatice Cengiz wrote in a statement.

"Who planned it, who ordered it, where is his body?"

Some Western governments, as well as the US' Central Intelligence Agency, had previously said that they believed Prince Mohammed had ordered the killing.

Turkey, which launched its own trial against 20 Saudi officials in July, said the verdict in Saudi Arabia fell short of expectations, and urged the Saudi authorities to cooperate with its investigation.

REUTERS