Rights activists, press freedom groups and friends of Jamal Khashoggi held a memorial in Istanbul on Wednesday outside Riyadh's consulate, where the Saudi journalist was murdered, according to Daily Sabah.
The event on the first anniversary of his death began at 1:14 p.m. (1014 GMT), the exact time Khashoggi walked into his country's diplomatic mission to get documents to marry his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor hailing from a prominent Saudi family, entered the Saudi consulate on Oct. 2, 2018, to collect a document that he needed to marry his Turkish fiancee. Agents of the Saudi government killed Khashoggi inside the consulate and apparently dismembered his body, which has never been found.
No one has been held accountable for Khashoggi's death, although Turkish and Western intelligence agencies say the order to kill him could only have come "from the highest levels of the Saudi government."
The disappearance of Khashoggi received a fair amount of attention internationally in the past year. After denials, Saudi Arabia ultimately admitted to the murder of journalist. But nobody knows what the Saudi agents did to the remains of his body.
According to Anadolu Agency, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into the allegations that Khashoggi was killed by a 15-member hit squad, occupying high offices in security and intelligence in Saudi Arabia. They included security and intelligence officers and forensic science experts.
In a written statement, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office reported that Khashoggi was strangled and his body was dismembered.
The kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told US broadcaster CBS Sunday that he did not order the murder, but took "full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia."
the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Agnes Callamard responded on Twitter "there is in this statement an implicit recognition that the killing of (Khashoggi) was a State killing. It happened under his watch as quasi head of state. The State is therefore implicated as he is."
Cengiz said that although Khashoggi disagreed with the crown prince and the kingdom, by killing him "they are now faced with much greater problems. And they're going to pay the price for this."
KI/PR
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