French judge to investigate Khashoggi assassination after complaint against Saudi crown prince
A Paris judge will investigate the 2018 assassination of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi after rights groups filed a complaint against Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, French sources told AFP on Saturday. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office confirmed an investigating judge from the crimes against humanity unit will probe the complaint for torture and enforced disappearances. The probe follows a court of appeal ruling on Monday that overturned years of opposition to the case on admissibility grounds.
A Paris judge will investigate the 2018 assassination of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi after rights groups filed a complaint against Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, French sources told AFP on Saturday.
Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote critically about the oil-rich kingdom in The Washington Post, was strangled and then dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat) confirmed that "an investigating judge from the crimes against humanity unit will now investigate the complaint" for torture and enforced disappearances, when contacted by AFP.
The complaint was initially filed by Khashoggi's employer, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), and the rights group Trial International, who petitioned French courts during MBS's visit to France in July 2022. They were subsequently joined by press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The development follows years of legal wrangling, with the prosecutor's office previously opposed to opening a case in France on admissibility grounds. However, in a decision handed down on Monday, the court of appeal ruled in the rights groups' favour.
"The crime of which Jamal Khashoggi was a victim is an abominable crime, decided and planned at the highest level of the Saudi state, which had a journalist executed who was a dissident and independent voice," said Emmanuel Daoud, a lawyer for RSF.
Henri Thulliez, a lawyer for Trial International, said there "should no longer be any obstacle to opening a judicial investigation into the atrocious crime committed against Jamal Khashoggi".
A 2021 US intelligence report claimed the crown prince was directly responsible for the killing. However, President Donald Trump has since denied MBS's role, saying the prince "knew nothing" about the journalist's murder.