A French judge has opened an inquiry into a complaint against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to sources cited by AFP on Saturday, May 16.
France's National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office said a judge from its crimes against humanity division would investigate allegations of torture and enforced disappearance linked to the case.
The complaint was submitted by Trial International and Reporters Without Borders during Mohammed bin Salman's visit to France in July 2022. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), the organisation where Khashoggi had worked, later joined the proceedings.
The inquiry follows a ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal on Monday, May 11, which overturned earlier objections from prosecutors who had argued that rights groups could not legally bring such complaints before French courts.
Emmanuel Daoud, lawyer for Reporters Without Borders, said the organisation wanted accountability for what he described as a state-level crime targeting an independent journalist.
Henri Thulliez, representing Trial International, said the appeals court decision cleared the way for a full judicial investigation.
Killing sparked international outrage
Khashoggi, a Saudi writer and columnist for The Washington Post, entered the consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, to collect paperwork ahead of his marriage. He never emerged from the building.
Turkish investigators later said the 59-year-old journalist was killed and dismembered inside the consulate by a Saudi team that had travelled to Istanbul on the same day. His body has not been found.
At the time, then US President Donald Trump indicated that Mohammed bin Salman may have been aware of the operation.
A CIA assessment released in 2021 under former US President Joe Biden concluded that the Saudi Crown Prince approved an operation aimed at capturing or killing Khashoggi.
According to the report, members of the 15-man team involved in the operation had links to the Saudi royal court and to Saud al-Qahtani, a former royal adviser dismissed after the incident. The assessment noted that al-Qahtani was considered a close associate of Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia initially denied any involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance before later acknowledging that he had been killed inside the consulate after what officials described as a confrontation.
In 2020, Saudi prosecutors announced final sentences against eight people connected to the case and said the matter had been closed after Khashoggi's family waived private claims.
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