Saudi Arabia's top prosecutor, Saudi Al-Mojeb is seeking a death penalty for five of the 11 arrested for their alleged involvement in journalist and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi's murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Speaking to a group of reporters in Riyadh, Mojeb said that a team of 15 were sent to Istanbul by Saudi's former deputy head of intelligence, Ahmed al-Asiri to bring back Khashoggi but instead, they killed him when he resisted. Assiri has since been fired for sending the team and trying to force Khashoggi to return.
Washington Post reports that the order to kill Khashoggi came from the head of the team who had gone to Istanbul. Mojeb also added that the plan to bring Khashoggi took shape on September 29.
Khashoggi was last seen walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to finalise some papers to marry his Turkish fiancée on October 2.
In October, the Saudi government finally confessed that Khashoggi was murdered in the consulate and that he was drugged and his body was dismembered. The country's public prosecutor said that Khashoggi's body pieces were then handed over to an agent waiting outside the consulate.
Initially, the Saudi government denied that anything happened to Khashoggi. The authorities then said that he died after an argument went wrong and after a lot of pressure they admitted that Khashoggi was killed in a premeditated hit.
However, the government has continuously maintained that the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman did not have any knowledge of the proceedings and he was not involved in it.
Khashoggi, a Saudi national was very vocal in his criticism of the country's royal family and he also called for democracy more than once. He moved to the United States two years ago and lived in Virginia since then.
