FILE - A van with a protest poster highlights Saudi human rights violations, together with the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi within the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, at St. James' Park in Newcastle, England, Sunday Oct. 17, 2021. (AP Picture/Jon Tremendous)
ANKARA, TURKEY --
The Turkish prosecutor within the case towards 26 Saudi nationals charged within the slaying of Washington Put up columnist Jamal Khashoggi made a shock request Thursday that their trial in absentia be suspended and the case transferred to Saudi Arabia, elevating fears of a doable coverup.
The panel of judges made no ruling on the prosecutor's request however mentioned a letter could be despatched to Turkey's Justice Ministry in search of its opinion on the doable switch of the file to Saudi judicial authorities, the state-run Anadolu Company reported. Trial was adjourned till April 7.
The event comes as Turkey has been attempting to normalize its relationship with Saudi Arabia, which hit an all-time low following Khashoggi's grisly October 2018 killing. Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned in an interview on Thursday that Saudi authorities had been extra cooperative on judicial points with Turkey, however didn't elaborate.
In arguing for the switch, the prosecutor instructed the court docket that the Saudi chief public prosecutor's workplace requested the Turkish proceedings be transferred to the dominion in a letter dated March 13, and that worldwide warrants issued by Ankara towards the defendants be lifted, in response to the non-public DHA information company.
The prosecutor mentioned that as a result of the arrest warrants can't be executed and protection statements can't be taken, the case would stay inconclusive in Turkey.
Amnesty Worldwide urged Turkey to press forward with the trial, saying whether it is transferred to Saudi Arabia, Turkey shall be "knowingly and willingly sending the case to a spot the place it is going to be coated up."
Transferring Khashoggi's trial to Saudi Arabia would offer a diplomatic decision to a dispute that represented the broader troubles between Ankara and the dominion because the 2011 Arab Spring.
Turkey beneath Erdogan supported Islamists because the uprisings took maintain, whereas Saudi Arabia and its ally the United Arab Emirates sought to suppress such actions for worry of going through challenges to their autocratic governments. In the meantime, Turkey sided with Qatar in a diplomatic dispute that noticed Doha boycotted by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Since then-President Donald Trump misplaced the 2020 election, the Gulf Arab states have put aside -- however not absolutely resolved -- the Qatar dispute. In the meantime, Turkey beneath Erdogan has confronted a fast devaluation of its lira foreign money over his refusal to hike rates of interest. Bilateral commerce to the dominion and the UAE, a significant transshipment level for the world financial system, additionally collapsed.
Because the begin of 2022, Erdogan has sought to enhance these ties, together with making his first go to to the UAE in practically a decade. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, after combating by means of the coronavirus pandemic's financial results, going through a grinding struggle in Yemen and battling renewed tensions with Iran, additionally wish to resolve the excellent feud.
Khashoggi disappeared on Oct. 2, 2018, after getting into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, in search of paperwork that might enable him to marry Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish nationwide who was ready exterior the constructing. He by no means emerged.
Turkish officers allege that the Saudi nationwide, who was a United States resident, was killed after which dismembered with a bone noticed contained in the consulate. His physique has not been discovered. Previous to his killing, Khashoggi had written critically of Saudi Arabia's crown prince in columns for the Washington Put up.
Turkish authorities mentioned he was killed by a workforce of Saudi brokers. These on trial in absentia embrace two former aides of the prince.
Saudi officers initially supplied conflicting accounts in regards to the killing, together with claims that Khashoggi had left the consulate constructing unhurt. However amid mounting worldwide stress, they said that Khashoggi's dying was a tragic accident, with the assembly unexpectedly turning violent.
Turkey determined to attempt the defendants in absentia after Saudi Arabia rejected Turkish calls for for his or her extradition.
The slaying had sparked worldwide condemnation and forged a cloud of suspicion over Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Western intelligence companies, in addition to the U.S. Congress, have mentioned that an operation of this magnitude couldn't have occurred with out his information.
In urging Turkey to proceed with the trial, Amnesty Worldwide mentioned Ankara could be complicit in a coverup if it grants the Saudi request for a switch.
"If the prosecutor's request is granted, then as a substitute of prosecuting and shedding mild on a homicide that was dedicated on its territory ... Turkey shall be knowingly and willingly sending the case to a spot the place it is going to be coated up," mentioned Tarik Beyhan, Amnesty's marketing campaign director for Turkey.
Beyhan mentioned he did not wish to "take into consideration the chance" that the prosecutor's request could also be associated to the enhancing ties between Riyadh and Ankara.
"Primary human rights ... shouldn't be made the topic of political negotiations," he mentioned. "A homicide can't be coated as much as repair relations."
A few of the males had been placed on trial in Riyadh behind closed doorways. A Saudi court docket issued a closing verdict in 2020 that sentenced 5 mid-level officers and operatives to 20-year jail phrases. The court docket had initially ordered the dying penalty, however decreased the punishment after Khashoggi's son Salah, who lives in Saudi Arabia, introduced that he forgave the defendants. Three others had been sentenced to lesser jail phrases.
On Thursday, Khashoggi's fiancee, Cengiz, appeared to criticize the prosecutor's request in a tweet in English. "It's an exemplary state of affairs by way of exhibiting the dilemma going through humanity within the fashionable period," she wrote. "Which of the 2 will we select? To wish to stay like a virtuous human being or to construct a life by holding materials pursuits above every kind of values."
She didn't reply to a request for remark.
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Related Press Author Jon Gambrell contributed from Dubai.
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