Turkish prosecutors have prepared a second indictment in connection with the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, naming six new Saudi nationals as suspects.
Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen at the Saudi consulate on October 2, 2018, where he had gone to obtain documents for his impending wedding. Turkish officials believe his body was dismembered and removed from the building, while his remains have not been found.
Twenty Saudi nationals are already on trial in an Istanbul court for Khashoggi’s killing. The indictment against the six suspects, including two consulate workers and four other Saudi nationals, was sent to the court to be combined with the main case, reports Reuters citing broadcaster CNN Turk and other media said on Monday.
Two of the suspects, a vice consul and an attache, were facing life jail sentences for premeditated murder with monstrous intent, the broadcaster said.
The four others, who CNN Turk said had arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 10-11, 2018, more than a week after the killing, were charged with destroying, concealing or tampering with evidence, which carries a sentence of up to five years in jail.
The Istanbul prosecutor’s office did not immediately provide comment on the media reports.
A Saudi court this month jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years for the murder, four months after Khashoggi’s family forgave his killers and enabled earlier death sentences to be set aside.