Saudi Arabia scraps death sentences over Khashoggi murder, jails 8
Verdict, which follows international outcry, comes after sons of prominent columnist ‘pardoned’ alleged killers

A Saudi court Monday overturned five death sentences over journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in a final ruling that jailed eight defendants for between seven and 20 years, state media reported.
“Five of the convicts were given 20 years in prison and another three were jailed for 7-10 years,” the official Saudi Press Agency said, citing a spokesman for the public prosecutor.
None of the defendants were named in what was described as the final court ruling on the killing, which had sparked an international outcry.
The verdict came after Khashoggi’s sons said in May they had “pardoned” the killers, a move condemned as a “parody of justice” by a UN expert.
The family’s pardon spared the lives of five unnamed people sentenced to death over the 2018 murder in a December court ruling, which was lambasted by human rights groups after two top aides to the crown prince were exonerated.
Khashoggi — a royal family insider turned critic — was killed and dismembered at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, in a case that tarnished the reputation of de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Khashoggi, a 59-year-old critic of the crown prince, was strangled and his body cut into pieces by a 15-man Saudi squad inside the consulate, according to Turkish officials. His remains have not been found.
Western intelligence agencies, as well as the US Congress, have said the crown prince bears ultimate responsibility for the killing and that an operation of this magnitude could not have happened without his knowledge.
Riyadh has described the murder as a “rogue” operation, but both the CIA and a United Nations special envoy have directly linked Prince Mohammed to the killing, a charge the kingdom vehemently denies.
Prior to his killing, Khashoggi had written critically of Prince Mohammed in columns for the Washington Post at a time when the young heir to the throne was being widely hailed by Washington for pushing through social reforms.
Khashoggi’s columns criticized the parallel crackdown on dissent overseen by the prince. Dozens of perceived critics of the prince remain in prison, including women’s rights activists, and face trial on national security charges.
Khashoggi had been living in exile in the United States for about a year, leaving Saudi Arabia just as Prince Mohammed was beginning to unleash a crackdown on Saudi human rights activists, writers and critics of the kingdom’s devastating war in Yemen.
A small number of diplomats, including from Turkey, as well as members of Khashoggi’s family, were allowed to attend the initial trial’s nine court sessions. Independent media were barred.