Saudi Arabia’s top prosecutor Al-Mojeb is recommending the death penalty for five suspects charged with ordering and carrying out the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.
Speaking at a rare press conference in Riyadh on Thursday, he said that Khashoggi’s killers had set in motion plans for the killing on Sept. 29, three days before he was killed inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
The prosecutor said the highest-level official behind the killing was Saudi former deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri, who has been fired for ordering Khashoggi’s forced return.
The prosecutor said 21 people were in custody, with 11 indicted and referred to trial.
Turkey has blamed the highest ranks of power in Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi’s brutal death, some senior U.S. lawmakers, have said they believe it is not credible to suggest a Saudi operative would have undertaken such a dramatic operation without approval from a top royal family member.
