US to press Saudi Arabia for full investigation into Khashoggi murder
Saudi critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate two years ago on Friday. There remains no definitive conclusion on who ordered the hit.
A representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Turkey holds a poster of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during an event marking the second-year anniversary of the assassination of the Riyadh critic in front of Saudi Arabia's Consulate in Istanbul. October 2, 2020.
The US will continue to press for a full investigation into Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate.
"There are those now in prison as a result of having engaged in this. We want to make sure that their investigation is full, complete, thorough and gets to the bottom of this as well. We’ve been assured that they will and continue to press that issue with them,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday.
Friday marks the two-year anniversary of the killing of Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, last seen at the Saudi consulate on October 2, 2018, where he had gone to obtain documents for his impending wedding.
Turkish officials believe his body was dismembered and removed from the building, while his remains have not been found.
Activists and human rights groups have said the murder was premeditated and carried out upon directives of Crown Prince bin Salman, a charge Riyadh denies.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Pompeo said that the US wanted to get bottom of this horrific murder.
“President Trump made clear from the beginning this was a horrific murder that was tragic. We’ve demanded Saudi Arabia take action against those who perpetrated it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Khashoggi's family and friends this week launched the work of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a non-profit organisation that Khashoggi founded not long before he was killed.
They accused the United States of "shielding the top Saudi officials responsible for his death."
"Rather than cozy up to the Saudi officials who ordered Khashoggi’s gruesome murder, the Trump administration should provide the transparency that Congress has demanded regarding our government’s knowledge about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s role in this crime," DAWN’s executive director, Sarah Leah Whitson, said.
READ MORE: As the US deepens ties with Saudis, the EU urges an arms embargo on Riyadh
Turkey prepares second indictment
Turkish prosecutors prepared a second indictment in September in connection with Khashoggi's murder in Istanbul, naming six new Saudi nationals as suspects.
Twenty Saudi nationals are already on trial in an Istanbul court for Khashoggi's killing. The indictment against the six suspects, including two consulate workers and four other Saudi nationals, was sent to the court to be combined with the main case.
In September, the Saudi chief prosecutor announced the final verdicts for eight defendants tried in the Khashoggi case.
Five of the defendants were sentenced to 20 years, one to 10 years and the two remaining to seven years each in prison.
READ MORE: Journalist Khashoggi's fiancee hopes for justice in Turkey trial
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