A French judge will look into complaints against Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi's killing

People hold posters of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, near the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, on Oct. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)

PARIS — A French investigating judge will examine a complaint by two rights groups accusing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of involvement in the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said Saturday.

The prosecutor’s office, known as the PNAT, said the case will now be handled by an investigating judge from the crimes against humanity unit after a May 11 ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal.

The complaint was filed by Trial International and Reporters Without Borders. The groups accuse the Saudi crown prince of complicity in torture and enforced disappearance over the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist and Washington Post columnist who was brutally killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

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Khashoggi’s body was dismembered and has never been found.

The PNAT said the Paris Court of Appeal found the complaints admissible because the possibility that the case could be classified as a crime against humanity — potentially including the underlying crimes of torture and enforced disappearance — could not be ruled out at this stage.

The prosecutor’s office said it took note of the court’s decision, while adding that the ruling did not invalidate its own interpretation of the French criminal procedure rules governing whether the groups were entitled to file the complaint as civil parties.

The French complaint was initially filed in 2022, during a visit to France by Prince Mohammed. The crown prince had faced international isolation after Khashoggi’s killing but has since been received again by Western leaders and dignitaries.

The opening of a French judicial inquiry does not mean Prince Mohammed has been charged or that French judges have found him responsible. It means an investigating judge will examine whether the complaint can lead to further proceedings.

Prince Mohammed has denied ordering Khashoggi’s killing but has said it happened under his watch as Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler.

U.S. intelligence agencies previously concluded that he approved the operation that led to the killing.

Saudi Arabia held a closed-door trial over the killing and said it punished those responsible, but rights groups criticized the proceedings as opaque and insufficient.

The Associated Press