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By Stephen Kalin and Tuvan Gumrukcu
RIYADH / ANKARA (Reuters) – The Saudi prosecutor is demanding the death penalty for five of the 11 suspects charged with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, his office said on Thursday as the kingdom tries to contain its biggest political crisis in a generation. .
Khashoggi, a royal insider turned critic of Saudi politics, was killed at the Istanbul consulate on October 2 after a deadly lethal brawl, the Attorney General and spokesman Shalaan al-Shalaan told reporters. .
Shalaan stated that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not know anything about the operation in which Khashoggi's body was dismembered, removed from the building and handed over to an unidentified "local cooperator".
We do not know where the remains of Khashoggi are, he said.
Shalaan's report on the murder, Riyadh's latest explanation, sparked skepticism in Turkey as one US senator said it was incredible that the murder could have been committed without order.
Shalaan said the Washington Post columnist was murdered after "negotiations" for his return to the kingdom, and that the assassination was ordered by the head of a negotiating team tasked with repatriating Khashoggi. after deciding that it was impossible to dismiss the consulate reporter. .
The order to repatriate Khashoggi had been sent by former intelligence chief, General Ahmed al-Asiri, Shalaan added. Asiri was sacked last month as a result of a first investigation.
When asked if Prince Mohammed had played a role in the killing, he replied, "He had no knowledge". Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir reiterated this position, saying that the prince had absolutely nothing to do with the case and accusing Turkey of disregarding the demands of the country. Saudi information.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the order of the operation came from the highest Saudi authorities, but probably not from King Salman, instead focusing on his 33-year-old heir. US President Donald Trump hinted that the ultimate responsibility lay with the prince as a de facto leader.
Riyadh initially denied having knowledge of Khashoggi's disappearance, before giving contradictory explanations, namely that he was reportedly killed during a dishonest operation. The case sparked a worldwide outcry, opened the kingdom to possible sanctions and tarnished Prince Mohammed's image.
US Democratic Senator Chris Coons rejected the idea that an unauthorized team had committed the murder. "I find that absolutely incredible," he told CNN, calling for a US investigation using information from Turkish intelligence and other sources.
"We should draw our own conclusions, rather than let the Saudis propose a different version of events," he said.
Some of the details provided on Thursday were again inconsistent with previous versions, none of them mentioning a death attributable to drugs and one of them calling premeditated murder based on information provided by the authorities. Turkey.
DEATH SENTENCE
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the measures announced by the Saudi prosecutor's office were "positive but insufficient", and reiterated Ankara's request to bring the group of 15 people to Turkey.
An Erdogan advisor said the Saudi comments were aimed at concealing the murder. "I do not believe that the real perpetrators will be discovered through the investigation of Saudi Arabia," Yasin Aktay said.
Without naming them, Shalaan said the Saudi prosecutor had demanded the death penalty for five people "charged with ordering and committing the crime, as well as with appropriate penalties for the other people charged".
He added that 11 out of 21 suspects have been charged and will be sent to court, while investigations into the remaining suspects will continue to determine their role in the crime.
A former senior aide to Crown Prince Saud al-Qahtani has been banned from traveling, while investigations are ongoing on his role, Shalaan said.
He added that Qahtani had been coordinating with Asiri and had met with the members before their trip to Istanbul to inform them of the journalist's activities.
Qahtani has already been fired from the royal court, but four Gulf-based sources told Reuters this week that he was still at large and that he was continuing to operate discreetly.
A senior government official previously identified the leader of the negotiating team as Maher Mutreb, a Qahtani assistant who appeared on photographs with Prince Mohammed during his official visits this year to the United States and Europe .
Six weeks after the murder, Turkey is trying to keep pressure on Prince Mohammed and has released a series of evidence that undermined Riyadh's early denials of involvement.
Turkey says it has recordings related to the killing that she shared with her western allies. A Turkish official told Reuters that the officials who had heard the recordings, including Khashoggi's murder as well as the conversations leading up to the operation, were horrified but that their countries had done nothing.
Last month, two intelligence sources said Qahtani had issued Skype orders to Khashoggi's killers. More recently, a government source close to the record said that Qahtani figured prominently in the recordings.
Erdogan said Turkey had also played the recordings to Saudi officials, which Shalaan refused to confirm or deny. He added that Riyadh had asked Ankara to share testimonies and hand over Khashoggi's phones.
(Other reports by Maha El Dahan and Asma Al Sharif in Dubai, writings by Tuqa Khalid and Ghaida Ghantous, editions by Dominic Evans / Mark Heinrich)
