Saudi prosecutor calls for the DEATH PENALTY for five of the 11 men charged with murdering Jamal Khashoggi as trial opens in Riyadh
- 11 men accused of murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi went on trial Thursday
- Saudi Arabia’s attorney general said he will seek death penalty for five of them
- Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman, was killed in Turkey as he went to the consulate to collect divorce papers
- It is thought he was strangled before his body was dismembered and disposed of
Saudi Arabia’s attorney general sought the death penalty for five of 11 defendants charged with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as their high-profile trial opened in Riyadh on Thursday.
All 11 accused were present with their lawyers at the opening hearing, according to a statement by the attorney general carried by Saudi’s state press agency.
The names of the 11 defendants have not been officially released.
Five of the 11 men accused of murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi (pictured) in October last year are facing the death penalty as their trial gets underway in Saudi Arabia
Turkish media did publish a list of 15 men who they say formed the hit squad, taken from documents they showed as they passed through passport control.
Seven of those men are bodyguards of the kingdom’s de-facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, who denies giving the order to kill Khashoggi.
It is not known whether any of the 11 men in court appeared on Turkey’s list.
The statement also said prosecutors sent a request to Turkey for evidence that Ankara has collected over the October 2 killing of Mr Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
‘No response has been received to date and the Public Prosecutor’s Office is still waiting for an answer,’ the statement said.
Turkish officials have previously said they shared evidence with Saudi Arabia and other nations over Mr Khashoggi’s killing.
Mr Khashoggi – a former regime insider – had written columns for the Washington Post critical of Saudi Arabia’s de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi officials have admitted that Khashoggi’s killing was a premeditated act carried out by state assassins, but deny that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (pictured) gave the order
Mr Khashoggi disappeared on October 2 when he went to the Saudi consulate in Turkey alongside fiancee Hatice Cengiz to obtain divorce papers from his previous marriage so he could remarry.
Turkey concluded that he had been killed soon after walking into the embassy and his body dismembered by a team of Saudi assassins.
The Arab kingdom initially denied the killing, before changing its story to say that he had died in a fist-fight.
Saudi then changed its story several more times before finally acknowledging that he had been killed in a act of premeditated murder.
But Saudi denied accusations by the regime’s critics that Bin Salman had given the order, instead blaming ‘rogue elements’ of the state.
Mr Khashoggi’s body has yet to be found amid reports that it was given to a local ‘fixer’ who dissolved it in acid.