Saudi Arabia has sentenced to death five persons accused of the brutal killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the country’s Istanbul consulate last year October.
Five people, yet to be identified, will be executed and another three will be imprisoned for 24 years, according to a statement read at the public prosecutor’s office in Riyadh on Monday.
Washington D.C based Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government and Crown Prince Salman, was killed and dismembered inside the kingdom’s consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul by a team of Saudi agents.
The Saudi public prosecutor said it was the result of a “rogue operation” and put 11 unnamed individuals on trial.
The prosecutor said that Saud al-Qahtani, a senior Saudi royal adviser, was investigated but later released without being charged.
Grisly details about the killing, including allegations that the journalist’s body was chopped up, made headlines and strained relations between Riyadh and many of its western allies, except Donald Trump’s United States.
