Foreign
I’ll continue to fight for justice over Khashoggi’s murder— Hatice Cengiz
Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi vowed Thursday to keep fighting for justice.
Her comments came as a Turkish court ruled to halt the trial of 26 Saudis charged in the killing and transfer the case to Saudi Arabia.
Khashoggi was killed during a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 to collect documents required to marry Hatice Cengiz.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing Thursday, Cengiz said she would appeal the case.
“We will not give up just because the judicial process has taken such a decision now,” Cengiz said. “I will continue with the legal process as much as I can.”
The trial began in absentia in 2020 after Saudi Arabia rejected requests from Turkey to extradite the defendants.
But last week, Turkey’s justice minister agreed to a prosecutor’s request to suspend the trial, based on the argument that the absence of defendants obstructed it. The minister added that the trial could return if Turkey was not satisfied by the outcome in Saudi Arabia.
Arrest warrants for the defendants, including two aides to the Saudi Crown Prince, were lifted.
The Turkish court has granted lawyers seven days to appeal.
In a separate trial, a Saudi court in 2019 convicted eight people in connection with the killing but did not identify them. The trial was seen widely by the international community as a sham.
Gokmen Baspinar, Cengiz’s lawyer, told the Turkish court that many defendants in the Saudi case had been acquitted.
“We filed a lawsuit in Ankara against the opinion of the Justice Ministry. There is a request for a stay of execution, and we should wait for its outcome,” Baspinar added.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia do not have a mutual legal assistance treaty, so the Khashoggi case will be the first transfer of a legal case, Baspinar said.
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