Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman didn’t order , the Saudi Prosecutor General said here Thursday even as the government attributed its changing narrative on the incident to changing testimonies of over half a dozen people who claim to belong to its Royal Guard and intelligence service indicted for it.
The death penalty has been sought for five out of 21 in custody for the murder.
The announcement, in which the Prosecutor General declared in a press conference that the Deputy Chief of Intelligence Ahmed Assiri, who was sacked last month by the Saudi government from his post, ordered it steering the blame for it away from the Crown Prince.
Mr. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was last sighted entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2 ostensibly to obtain a marriage licence, according to the Saudi government, was murdered by 15 people who have since been arrested and indicted.
According to the spokesperson of the Prosecutor General, Mr. Khashoggi was injected by a sedative during a scuffle following which he died. His body was dismembered and delivered to a local Turkish cooperative which contradicts the Turkish claim that it was dissolved in acid.
Addressing a question related to the changing narrative of Saudi Arabia several times on the incident, the spokesman said that it was “misleading statements from the accused during the incident.”
The announcement, which came on the concluding day of the MISK Global Forum which is a part of the Crown Prince’s 2030 vision for the youth here, according to insiders, was a breakthrough and termed a big relief for the Saudis who were waiting for the outcome of the investigation.
‘Genuine desire to bring out truth’
Following the announcement by the Prosecutor General, the Saudi Minister of Media Dr. Awad al-Awwad said that it reflected the “genuine desire” of the Saudi leadership to bring out the truth and to make those responsible for it accountable.
In a statement, Dr. Awwad said that Saudi Arabia had a “strict policy” in the pursuit of justice and preserving human life.
“The Khashoggi issue has taken different suspicious international angles. Saudi Arabia has sent an important message to the whole world explaining a very vital Saudi policy in the pursuit of justice which is vital to Islamic Sharia,” he said.
Dr. Awwad stressed that the announcement by the Prosecutor General, which includes “painful details” about the crime which Saudi Arabia as a nation could “never get used to” had “blocked the road” for some “desperate international attempts to politicise the issue by some parties, persons and unprofessional media for reasons not hidden from anybody.”
On the other hand, in a move which insiders said was a change from its defensive to offensive stance in the case, the Saudi Foreign Minister Adil al-Jubair rejected his Turkish counterpart’s demand seeking an international investigation in it.
Observers monitoring the case in Riyadh were, according to insiders, expecting that Turkey, which had questioned the Saudi Prosecutor General’s statement, to further escalate the issue internationally following a response from Europe and the United States which meant that the “story was far from over.”
(The writer is in Riyadh at the invitation of the Saudi Government)