Turkey: Move to transfer Khashoggi murder trial to Saudi Arabia is 'dark day' for justice

‘It is clear that justice cannot be delivered by a Saudi court’ - Agnès Callamard

Following a speech by Turkey’s Justice Minister, Bekir Bozdag, in which he said the Turkish government would recommend that the in absentia trial in Turkey of 26 Saudi nationals charged in the 2018 murder in Istanbul of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi be suspended and the case transferred to Saudi Arabia, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:

“Today is a dark day for those who have spent more than three years campaigning for justice for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

“By transferring the case of a murder that was committed on its territory, Turkey will knowingly and willingly send the case back into hands of those who are responsible.

“Indeed, the Saudi system has repeatedly failed to cooperate with the Turkish prosecutor and it is clear that justice cannot be delivered by a Saudi court.

“What has happened to Turkey’s declared commitment that justice must prevail for Jamal’s gruesome murder and that his case would never become a pawn in political calculations and interest?

“Should the Government indeed recommend the suspension of the prosecution, this would guarantee impunity - the opposite of justice for Jamal.”