Jamal Khashoggi's fiance says she wants justice over ‘great betrayal and deception’

Hatice Cengiz, journalist Jamal Khashoggi's fiance, speaks to the press as she leaves the Istanbul's courthouse
AFP via Getty Images

The fiance of Jamal Khashoggi has asked a Turkish court that all persons responsible for his killing to be brought to justice.

Hatice Cengiz said on Friday that the Washington Post columnist was lured to his death at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul through “a great betrayal and deception”.

She spoke during the opening of the trial in absentia of two former aides of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and 18 other Saudi nationals.

The 20 Saudi defendants were charged in Turkey over the brutal killing in 2018, which sparked international condemnation and cast a cloud of suspicion over the prince.

Jamal Khashoggi was killed in 2018  
AFP/Getty Images

They all left Turkey and Saudi Arabia rejected Turkish demands for their extradition.

Some of the men were put on trial in Riyadh behind closed doors but the proceedings were widely criticised as a whitewash.

Mr Khashoggi’s family members later announced they had forgiven his killers.

Ms Cengiz outside the court in Istanbul after the trial's opening
AP

The trial in Turkey is being closely watched for possible new information or evidence from the killing, including the whereabouts of Mr Khashoggi’s remains.

Mr Khashoggi, who was a United States resident, had walked into his country’s consulate on October 2 2018, for an appointment to pick up documents that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiance. He never walked out.

“He was called to that consulate with great betrayal and deception,” the private DHA news agency quoted Ms Cengiz as telling the court during her evidence.

Ms Cengiz outside the court in Istanbul
AFP via Getty Images

“I am making a complaint about everyone at the consulate. Everyone from the driver to the tea-maker,” said Ms Cengiz, who waited for Mr Khashoggi outside the Istanbul consulate when he went there to obtain the documents and alerted authorities when he failed to come out.

The trial was adjourned until November 24, DHA reported.

Turkish prosecutors have demanded that the defendants be sentenced to life terms in prison, if convicted.

The Turkish prosecutors have charged the prince’s former advisers, Saud al-Qahtani and Ahmed al-Asiri, with “instigating a premeditated murder with the intent of (causing) torment through fiendish instinct”.

Prosecutors are also seeking life prison sentences for 18 other Saudi nationals charged with carrying out “a premeditated murder with the intent of (causing) torment through fiendish instincts.”

Turkish police search villa in Khashoggi investigation - In Pictures

1/12

A team of 15 Saudi agents had flown to Turkey to meet Khashoggi inside the consulate.

They included a forensic doctor, intelligence and security officers and individuals who worked for the crown prince’s office.

Turkish officials allege Mr Khashoggi was killed and then dismembered with a bone saw.

Turkey, a rival of Saudi Arabia, apparently had the Saudi Consulate bugged and has shared audio of the killing with the CIA, among others.

Ms Cengiz outside the court in Istanbul
Getty Images

Prior to his killing, Mr Khashoggi had written critically of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in columns for the Washington Post.

Saudi Arabia had initially offered shifting accounts about Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance.

As international pressure mounted because of the Turkish leaks, the kingdom eventually settled on the explanation that he was killed by rogue officials in a brawl.

Turkish prosecutors say the suspects “acted in consensus from the beginning in line with the decision of taking the victim back to Saudi Arabia and of killing him if he did not agree”.

Riyadh had insisted that the kingdom’s courts are the correct place for the suspects to be tried and put 11 people on trial over the killing.

In December, five people were sentenced to death while three others were found guilty of covering up the crime and were sentenced to a combined 24 years in prison.

During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in May, Mr Khashoggi’s son announced that the family pardoned the killers, giving legal reprieve to the five government agents who were sentenced to death.