The ruling, which comes as Ankara seeks to repair relations with Saudi Arabia, has been denounced as “scandalous” by a human rights group. It marked a sharp turnaround for Turkey, which had pledged to shed light on the murder and began prosecuting those accused in absentia in 2020. Kasogi, a United States resident who wrote critically about Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was assassinated on October 2, 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He had gone to the consulate for an appointment to gather the documents needed to marry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, and never left. Turkish officials claimed that Kasogi was killed and cut with a bone saw inside the consulate by a group of Saudi agents sent to Istanbul. The team included a medical examiner, intelligence and security officers, and people working for the Crown Prince’s office. His remains have not been found. The Istanbul court ruling comes amid warnings from human rights groups that referring the case to the kingdom would cover up the murder, raising suspicions for the successor. Last week, the prosecutor in the case proposed his transfer to the kingdom, arguing that the trial in Turkey would remain unclear. The Turkish Justice Minister supported the recommendation, adding that the trial in Turkey will continue if the Istanbul court is not satisfied with the result in Saudi Arabia. It was unclear whether the kingdom, which has already referred some of the defendants to a closed-door trial, would open a new trial and there would be no immediate reaction from Riyadh to the ruling. At Thursday’s hearing, lawyers representing Cengiz asked the court not to transfer the case to Saudi Arabia, the private DHA news agency reported. “Let us not trust the lamb to the wolf,” lawyer Ali Ceylan told the court, according to the agency. “Let us protect the honor and dignity of the Turkish nation.” But the court adjourned the trial in accordance with the “positive opinion” of the Ministry of Justice, the DHA reported. It also decided to lift the arrest warrants issued against the accused and gave the parties seven days to file any objections. Saudi Arabia had rejected Turkey’s demands for the extradition of the accused, including two former aides to the prince. Some of the men were tried in Riyadh behind closed doors. A Saudi court has handed down a final verdict in 2020 that sentenced five middle-ranking officials and executives to 20 years in prison. The court had originally ordered the death sentence, but reduced the sentence after Kasogi’s son, Salah, who lives in Saudi Arabia, announced that he had pardoned them. Three others were sentenced to shorter prison terms. At the time of the assassination, Turkey had apparently stolen the Saudi consulate and shared the sound of the assassination with the CIA, among others. The murder sparked international condemnation. Western intelligence services, as well as the US Congress, said an operation of this magnitude could not have taken place without the knowledge of the successor. Human rights defenders have also urged Turkey not to transfer the case to Saudi Arabia, arguing that Kasogi would not be brought to justice by Saudi courts. “It’s a scandalous decision,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, director of the New York-based Observatory for Human Rights in Turkey. Saudi Arabia. “In the interests of realpolitik, Turkey is ready to sacrifice justice for a heinous crime on its own soil,” he told the Associated Press. “(The decision) paves the way for other countries to commit murders on Turkish soil and escape from it.” Cengiz said she would continue to seek justice. “We will continue this (judicial) process with all the power given to me, as a Turkish citizen,” he told reporters outside the court. “The two countries can make an agreement, the two countries can open a new chapter … but crime is still the same crime,” he said. “The people who committed the crime have not changed. “Governments and states must have a principled attitude.” The Committee to Protect Journalists also criticized the decision. “The Turkish government’s trial of the suspected killers of Jamal Kasogi has been politicized from the beginning, but the decision to transfer his case to Saudi Arabia dashes any hope of reaching an impartial conclusion based on the evidence,” he said. CPJ Middle East researcher. East and North Africa. “The international community must pursue a credible and transparent inquiry into Kasogi’s assassination and must not allow political expediencies or interventions to derail justice,” he said. Turkey, which is in a deep economic recession, is trying to improve its strained relations with Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries in the region. Some media outlets have claimed that Riyadh has made the improvement of its relations conditional on the withdrawal of the case from Turkey, which had sparked tensions between the two countries. The move will pave the way for resolving differences between the two regional heavyweights since the Arab Spring of 2011, including Turkey’s support for Islamist movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which Riyadh considers a terrorist group. Turkey has also sided with Qatar in a diplomatic row that saw Doha boycotted by Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.
