The fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi has told a Turkish court that all avenues for justice must be explored as 20 Saudi officials went on trial in absentia over the journalist’s gruesome killing and dismemberment in Istanbul in 2018. Agnès Callamard, the UN special rapporteur who authored a 2019 report into Khashoggi’s killing, said in Istanbul that the Turkish trial was an “important formalised step” in the search for justice. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Saudi official opens a door to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in October 2018. A team of Turkish state-appointed lawyers was present to represent the Saudi defendants, although none had managed to speak to their clients. Turkey’s pursuit of the Saudi defendants is widely viewed as hypocritical in a country that routinely locks up dissidents and has hollowed out its own judicial system, replacing independent judges with government-loyal officials.

Source: The Guardian July 03, 2020 07:38 UTC