Khashoggi's fiancee appeals against court verdict passing murder case to Saudi Arabia

Hatice Cengiz in a commemoration event in Washington in 2021. (Photo: AA/File)

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Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of the slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has filed an appeal against the transfer of the murder case to Saudi Arabia.

The attorney of Cengiz, Gökmen Başpınar, filed a petition with the İstanbul 12th Heavy Penal Court, which is authorized to review the verdict as a court of appeals.

Khashoggi was murdered in October 2018 in the kingdom's consulate in İstanbul, where he had gone for paperwork for his impending marriage.

After no significant progress in the case including 26 defendants, the İstanbul 11th Heavy Penal Court on April 7 approved the transfer of the case to Saudi Arabia.

The verdict, however, was against the laws and procedures, including Law no. 6706 on Law on International Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters, the Turkish Criminal Law no. 5237 and Criminal Procedure Code no. 5271, the attorney stated.

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The opinion of the Ministry of Justice in favor of the transfer of the case, which was required for the case to be handed over, was devoid of legal basis, he claimed.

Noting that the trial concerning the murder in Saudi Arabia was completed, the lawyer said the relevant article of the Law no. 6706 was adapted to this particular case "incompletely and incorrectly."

He stated that the transfer of the trial was not practically possible and what needed to be done was to extradite the defendants to the country where the crime was committed, and added, "However, while Saudi Arabia has rejected Turkey's extradition request, on what legal or political grounds does Turkey transfer the trial to Saudi Arabia cannot be understood."

"It is clear that a fair trial will not be held by the Saudi authorities, and this situation is mentioned even in the indictment itself," said the lawyer, demanding that the verdict of the Istanbul 11th High Criminal Court to halt the trial and to transfer the case to Saudi Arabia be annulled.

(HA/VK)