Saudis sentence five to death for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder

Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. PHOTO:

MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/A

Saudi Arabia sentenced five people to death for last year’s murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and freed two prominent suspects close to the kingdom’s crown prince, who a CIA assessment last year concluded had ordered the journalist killed.

The release of the two senior Saudi officials with ties to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman raises further questions about the credibility of the investigation into how Saudi government agents killed Mr. Khashoggi, a well-known critic of the kingdom’s leadership, and dismembered his body during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

How governments and international investors assess Monday’s sentencing could have a significant bearing on whether Prince Mohammed can secure the backing he seeks for modernizing and diversifying the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy.

The kingdom in recent years has implemented a series of new laws, including insolvency legislation, that aims to assure global investors their money won’t be subject to Saudi Arabia’s Islam-based legal system or the whims of the autocratic government. Yet the flow of foreign-direct investment into Saudi Arabia remains weak.

Riyadh has denied that the crown prince was involved in Mr. Khashoggi’s murder.

Five people are to be executed and another three are to be imprisoned for a total of 24 years for their involvement in covering up the murder, according to a statement by the public prosecutor on Monday. Eleven people stood trial for the murder, of which three have been released, the statement said. The verdicts can be appealed.

Former deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al Assiri was charged and tried but was released “for having no proof of his conviction in this case,” according to the public prosecutor. Former royal adviser Saud al Qahtani, who was never charged or tried, was also freed.

The Saudi prosecutor said there was no premeditated plan to kill Mr. Khashoggi, a columnist with the Washington Post, and the decision to murder him “was taken at the spur of the moment.” People familiar with the matter said that ruling leaves the path open for those sentenced to death to be pardoned by the family of the victim in exchange for so-called blood-money compensation.

Mr. Khashoggi’s son, Salah, wrote on his verified
Twitter account: “Today the Saudi judiciary gave us our right as children of the departed…We affirm our trust in the Saudi judiciary at all levels.”

Saudi officials have said the court sessions were meant to showcase Saudi Arabia’s ability to bring closure and accountability, but human-rights groups were scathing in their assessment of the hearings, suggesting they were little more than a coverup.

“When Saudis sentence five to death for Khashoggi’s murder, we fear that it is a way to silence them for ever and to conceal the truth…,” Christophe Deloire, the secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, wrote in a tweet.

“This verdict is a whitewash which brings neither justice nor the truth for Jamal Khashoggi and his loved ones,” Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East research director, said in a statement. “The trial has been closed to the public and to independent monitors, with no information available as to how the investigation was carried out.”

Formerly a government insider, Mr. Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in 2017, fearing he could be arrested as a crackdown on domestic dissent under Prince Mohammed intensified. He settled in the U.S., writing columns for the Post and emerging as a thorn in the side of the Saudi leadership.

The fallout from his murder slowed foreign investment in the kingdom and complicated Prince Mohammed’s plans to overhaul the Saudi economy to make it less dependent on oil. Riyadh also lost vital support among some U.S. officials in Washington, including influential members of Congress, leaving the kingdom more isolated in an increasingly turbulent Middle East, where tensions are growing between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Iran.

The sentencing is likely to rekindle tension over the journalist’s death in Washington, where President Trump has sought to maintain close ties to Prince Mohammed despite a U.S. intelligence conclusion that the crown prince ordered the killing. That finding prompted demands from Democrats and Republicans for more strenuous action against Riyadh.

President Trump has stood by Prince Mohammed, saying it wasn’t clear whether he had any role in the killing. On Monday, a senior Trump administration official called the latest Saudi action “an important step in holding those responsible for this terrible crime accountable, and we encourage Saudi Arabia to continue with a fair and transparent judicial process.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said senior Saudi officials “continue to escape accountability for the state-sponsored murder of Jamal Khashoggi.” He said the Trump administration should demand justice for Mr. Khashoggi, who was a Virginia resident, “instead of ignoring the CIA’s assessment of who killed him.”

For months, several members of Congress have called for accountability over the murder and a broad re-evaluation of the decades-old American-Saudi alliance.

Mr. Qahtani’s absence from the court hearings in particular posed a diplomatic quandary for the Saudis as they tried to put an end to the international furor over Mr. Khashoggi’s killing. A United Nations investigator earlier this year cited the lack of charges against Mr. Qahtani—and Prince Mohammed himself—as a key reason the Saudi trial couldn’t be relied on to deliver justice for Mr. Khashoggi. Mr. Qahtani long served as Prince Mohammed’s right-hand man, commanding extensive sway over domestic and foreign affairs until King Salman ordered his dismissal. He was sanctioned by the Treasury and State Department for his alleged role in Mr. Khashoggi’s death.

According to people familiar with the matter, the five people sentenced to death are Fahad Shabib Albalawi; Turki Muserref Alshehri; Waleed Abdullah Alshehri; Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, an intelligence officer who the U.S. said worked for Mr. Qahtani; and Salah Mohammed Tubaigy, a forensic doctor working for the interior ministry.

“I don’t think it is surprising to anyone that Qahtani is now officially free. It was expected,” a senior Saudi adviser said.

“But the fact that he and Assiri have walked out of this with hardly any serious consequences would cause an outrage…pretty much everyone in the high circles of the government blames them for this crisis,” he said.

Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported last year that Mr. Qahtani was intimately involved in orchestrating Mr. Khashoggi’s death, giving the order to Mr. Assiri to assemble the team that ultimately killed Mr. Khashoggi.

In sanctioning Mr. Qahtani, the Treasury said he was “part of the planning and execution” of the operation.

Mr. Qahtani and Mr. Assiri couldn’t be reached for comment.

The verdict comes after the long-awaited local listing earlier this month of state-backed oil giant Aramco, which raised $25.6 billion in a record-breaking initial public offering but failed to attract much foreign capital at the $1.7 trillion valuation.

The opaque nature of the trial could further deter international investors from betting on Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation. Some global investors are wary of spending long-term financial commitments in a country with little experience of international disputes or arbitration procedures.

Some international firms also are uncomfortable with being associated with Saudi Arabia since the Khashoggi murder and are unlikely to be assured by the lack of transparency over the case.

Major Silicon Valley technology companies and Hollywood studios, previously courted by Saudi officials to set up shop in the kingdom, didn’t attend the kingdom’s signature investment conference in October despite earlier signs of interest. Bank and finance CEOs, though, joined thousands of delegates from Asia, Europe and the U.S. at the event.