The trial of twenty-six Saudi nationals accused by Turkey for assassinating the Saudi journalist had opened before the Istanbul court in July 2020.
Le Monde
Turkey, who seeks to reconnect with Ryad she needs to support her economy in difficulty, it seems decided to finish with the Jamal Khashoggi case, Saudi journalist murdered and dismembered in 2018 in Istanbul .
The Prosecutor of the Istanbul Tribunal, before which was held since 2020 the summora of twenty-six Saudi nationals accused of crime, asked Thursday 31 March to “Clore” the file and to transfer it to Arabia Saudi.
According to the Turkish private press agency DHA, the Prosecutor defended his position, arguing that “the case is dragging because the orders of the Court can not be executed, the accused being foreign nationals”.
“a terrible new”
on Twitter , the fiancée of m . Khashoggi, Hatice Cengiz, pointed out that the prosecutor followed a request from the Saudi authorities. In a recent interview at the France-Presse agency, M me Cengiz exhorted Turkey, its country, to “insist that justice be done” and not to give up the benefit of a rapprochement with Ryad.
For Erol önderoglu, representative of Reporters Without Borders in Turkey, “Transferring to Ryad, where the world has already attended a masquerade of justice, is a terrible news for those who wish to get justice for the journalist”. “RSF encourages the Turkish Ministry of Justice to oppose this application filed on March 13 by Saudi Arabia,” he insists, noting that “the Khashoggi file seems this time the victim of diplomatic rapprochement between Turkey and the Saudi Kingdom.
The trial had opened before the Istanbul Tribunal in July 2020, in the absence of the twenty-six accused. The next hearing is scheduled for April 7th.
Saudi journalist 59, detractor of the Royal Saudi family and collaborator of Washington Post, was murdered and his body cut on October 2, 2018 inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, where he had reached a document, according to Turkey. That day, M me cengiz waited in the street, in front of the premises. But Mr. Khashoggi has never reappeared and his remains have never been found.
Ankara seeks the rapprochement with Ryad
This case poisons the relationship between the two Sunni regional powers. But Ankara, plagued by an economic crisis and inflation at the highest for twenty years (nearly 55% over the last twelve months), seeks for several months the rapprochement with Ryad. Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had announced early January an imminent visit to Saudi Arabia – which did not take place so far.
In a television interview Thursday morning, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Cavusoglu, acknowledged that “important stages towards the standardization of relations [with Saudi Arabia] are in progress”. “Judicial cooperation has reached a better level,” he added.
Multiplying initiatives for a few months to reconnect with several regional powers, Mr. Erdogan said early December want to develop Ankara’s relations with the Gulf countries, “without distinction”.
The relations between Ankara and Ryad had deteriorated in 2017 during the blockade of Qatar, an ally of Turkey, decreed by Saudi Arabia and followed by the Emirates.