A Saudi royal adviser and a senior intelligence official played key roles in the mission that ultimately led to the killing of government critic Jamal Khashoggi and authorities will seek the death penalty for five people who confessed to the murder.

Eleven people out of the 21 held in the case have been charged over Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, Shaalan Shaalan, deputy attorney general, said in a televised news conference.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who runs the day to day affairs of the world’s top oil exporter, had no knowledge of the mission, he added.

The killing of Khashoggi, a palace insider who turned critic, has provoked a global outcry and tarnished the reputation of the 33-year-old young prince, whose efforts to cast himself as a bolder reformer and trusted U.S. ally have often chafed against his policies abroad.

Saudi Arabia stuck by its earlier narrative that the Washington Post columnist was killed after a mission to abduct him went awry. The deputy chief of intelligence ordered that Khashoggi be brought back to the kingdom, Shaalan said. The team killed him after the talks failed and his body was handed to a collaborator in Turkey, he added.

Asked whether Saud al-Qahtanti, an aide to Prince Mohammed, had any role in the case, Shaalan said that a royal adviser had a coordinating role and had provided information. The former adviser was now under investigation, the prosecutor said, declining to reveal the names of any of those facing charges.

The prosecution ‘demands the death penalty for those who ordered and executed the killing and they’re five people,’ he said at the conference in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has asked Turkey to share the results of its investigation and recordings of the killing, and is planning to sign a ‘special mechanism’ to ensure this happens, he said. “The prosecution is still waiting for Turkey to hand over what was asked of them,” he said.

Turkey has shared an audio recording of the killing with the US, France, Canada, Germany, U.K., but it has stopped just short of blaming Prince Mohammed.

It demanded on Wednesday an international investigation into the case, and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said those who ordered the killing should be identified and brought to justice. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly denied Prince Mohammed, widely known as MBS, had any knowledge of the operation.

First Published: Nov 15, 2018 17:33 IST