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BEIRUT, Lebanon – The Saudi prosecutor said Thursday that he was demanding the death penalty for five people suspected of involvement in the assassination of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi at the country's consulate in Istanbul.
A spokesman for the Attorney General of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, told reporters that the 15-person team to confront Mr. Khashoggi had been ordered to return him to the kingdom. but instead made the decision to kill him on the spot. he resisted.
The statement was the kingdom's latest attempt to explain the October 2 killing of Virginia resident Khashoggi, who wrote columns critical of some Saudi policies for the Washington Post.
The case provoked a widespread international scandal and the biggest crisis in the kingdom's external relations since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.
Thursday's statement aimed to reinforce previous Saudi claims that the team in Riyadh acted without the consent of the highest authorities in the kingdom, namely King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Several current and former officials in Turkey, the United States and elsewhere have stated that such a complex and risky operation could not have been conducted without the Crown Prince's knowledge, although no evidence linking it directly to the crime has been made public.
Turkish officials said Khashoggi was killed in a premeditated assassination by the Saudi team, whose members fled to Turkey.
The team, according to the Turks, strangled Mr. Khashoggi shortly after entering the consulate, where he hoped to obtain the necessary documents to marry his Turkish bride and then dismembered him.
Turkey also published names, photographs and videos of the team in Istanbul, including images of a man who was wearing Mr. Khashoggi's clothes after the murder and was followed walking in Istanbul to attempt to leave a false surveillance trail.
The Saudi spokesman said that he could not identify any of the suspects, the investigation being ongoing.
Mr. Khashoggi's body was not found. Turkish officials have assumed that Saudi agents had dissolved it in an acid; On Thursday, the Saudi spokesman repeated that his government had claimed to have been entrusted to a Turkish collaborator, who had then disposed.
The history of Saudi Arabia regarding what happened to Mr. Khashoggi has changed many times after his disappearance was reported. Senior officials first insisted that he had left the consulate safely and acknowledged that a few weeks later he was killed in the Saudi diplomatic building.
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