Saudi Trial of Khashoggi Fell Short on Transparency: UN Rights Office
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Saudi trial into the killing of critic Jamal Khashoggi has lacked transparency and fallen short on assigning accountability for the crime, the UN human rights office said Tuesday.
A Saudi Arabian court Monday jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years for the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, state media reported, four months after his family forgave his killers and enabled death sentences to be set aside.
UN spokesman Rupert Colville, noting that the United Nations opposes the death penalty, told a Geneva briefing, "This is case where there has not been proper transparency in the justice process, those responsible should be prosecuted and given sentences commensurate with the crime."
"There is a whole issue of transparency and accountability in the case," he said, Reuters reported.
Khashoggi, a former advocate of the Saudi royal court who later became a critic of bin Salman, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, after he entered the perimeter to collect documents for his planned wedding. He had been falsely promised the documents.
The Washington Post, for which Khashoggi was a columnist, reported in November 2018 that the CIA had concluded that bin Salman personally ordered his killing.
