A Turkish prosecutor asked the court to transfer the Khashoggi case to Saudi Arabia

A Turkish prosecutor asked a court in Istanbul on Thursday to close the case of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, brutally murdered in the Turkish capital in 2018, and transfer him to Saudi Arabia, his Turkish fiancée confirmed.

“The prosecutor called, in line with the Saudi lawsuit, for the transfer of the case to (Saudi Arabia) and its closure in Turkey,” Hatice Cengiz wrote on Twitter after a hearing in the main court in Istanbul.

” The court would ask for the opinion of the Turkish Ministry of Justice. #Khashoggi #JusticeForJamal”, added Cengiz on the social network.

According to the private news agency DHA, the prosecutor said the case “has been delayed because court orders cannot be executed because the suspects are foreigners.”

The prosecutor's request comes at a time that Turkey seeks a thaw in relations with Saudi Arabia, which worsened after the assassination of the collaborator of the American newspaper The Washington Post inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi entered the consulate to make arrangements to marry Cengiz. According to authorities in the United States and Turkey, a Saudi squadron waiting for him strangled him and dismembered his body, which has not been found.

- “Terrible news” -

“Terrible news,” said Erol Onderoglu, a representative of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Turkey, on the prosecutor's request and asked the justice ministry to reject it.

“The Khashoggi case seems to be the victim of a diplomatic rapprochement between Turkey and the kingdom this time,” Saudi told AFP.

The assassination sparked international outrage and Western intelligence agencies claim that the Saudi crown prince, Mohamed bin Salman, authorized the killing.

The crown prince has said he accepts Saudi Arabia's responsibility in the case, but rejects any personal ties. Riyadh says it was the work of agents who acted on their own.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the time that the order to kill him “came from the highest levels” of the Saudi government.

Dissatisfied with the trial in Saudi Arabia, Turkey launched its own investigation into the murder and put 26 Saudis on trial in absentia, including two close friends of the crown prince.

- Insist on trial -

Cengiz said in a February interview with AFP that Turkey must insist on doing justice for Khashoggi, “even if it improves its relations” with Riyadh.

“I don't think it's in anyone's best interest to completely close the case,” he said.

Asked if she was disappointed, Cengiz replied: “If we look at it from the point of view of real politics (the Turkish position) it doesn't disappoint me” and added that countries are not governed by “emotions” but by mutual interests.

But she insisted that “from an emotional point of view”, she is sad.

“Not because my country has made peace with Saudi Arabia and the case is closing (...) but in the end, it doesn't matter how hard we defended it (...) now everything returns to the way it was at the beginning, as if nothing had happened. I'm inevitably disappointed by that,” she said.

Turkey - which is experiencing an economic crisis and requires foreign trade and investment - sought support from its regional rivals such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday in a television interview that some “concrete steps” would soon be taken to normalize relations with those countries.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for April 7.

(with information from AFP)

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