Eight years after Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Türkiye, is France the last hope for justice

Justice has still not been served for Jamal Khashoggi, eight years after the Washington Post columnist was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Turkish capital. Despite an abundance of evidence, two failed trials - one in Türkiye and another in the United States, where the journalist lived - an unsuccessful complaint filed by RSF in Germany, and an opaque trial in Saudi Arabia, only eight of the 15 main suspects were sentenced to prison terms. Some were members of the Saudi intelligence services or the Saudi Royal Guard. According to a 2021 investigation by British newspaper The Guardian, at least three of those convicted are said to have served their sentences in luxury villas in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. None of the senior political figures suspected of orchestrating the murder, including the crown prince himself, has been tried.

However, one breakthrough took place in May 2026. The office of France's national anti-terrorism prosecutor (PNAT) announced that it had opened an investigation into the murder, based on a complaint filed in 2022 by RSF, the human rights organisation Trial International, and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), founded by Jamal Khashoggi. DAWN was ultimately excluded from the proceedings for lack of legal standing. The complaint targets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally, accusing him of "complicity in torture and enforced disappearance as part of an organised group."

Political pressure: two proceedings dropped and one sham trial

• Trial in Türkiye (July 2020 - April 2022)
  
  In July 2020, an in-absentia trial against 20 indicted suspects opened in Türkiye. In September of the same year, six more suspects were indicted. RSF unsuccessfully tried to join the proceedings as a civil party. Although none of the suspects appeared in court, the hearings continued for two years, until 22 April 2022, when a Turkish prosecutor suspended the trial and the case was transferred to the Saudi courts. Saudi Arabia closed the case as it considered that it had already tried the suspects. Five days later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan travelled to Saudi Arabia for the first time since the murder, primarily seeking to restore Turkish-Saudi relations and attract Saudi investment to help address Türkiye's worsening economic crisis.
  

• Investigation in the United States (October 2020 - December 2022)

  In October 2020, Hatice Cengiz, Jamal Khashoggi's fiancée, and the organisation DAWN filed a civil lawsuit in a federal court in Washington, D.C. against Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and Saudi officials. In July 2022, the judge asked the Joe Biden administration to determine whether the crown prince was entitled to immunity. Just days before the 27 September deadline set by the judge, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud appointed his son, MBS, as prime minister, thereby granting him immunity as a head of state. The US government subsequently concluded that his new status did indeed grant him immunity. On 6 December 2022, Judge John Bates dismissed the case against MBS while acknowledging his "discomfort" with the circumstances surrounding his appointment. Despite Joe Biden's campaign promise to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over the murder, financial pressures stemming from Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and tensions in the Middle East likely softened his stance toward Saudi Arabia, a wealthy US ally.

• Trial in Saudi Arabia (January 2019 - December 2019)

  In January 2019, Saudi Arabia's courts began a closed-door trial in Riyadh, the capital, against only 11 suspects, without publicly disclosing their names. RSF considers this trial a sham. A year later, the Saudi judiciary claimed, contrary to the findings of several investigations, that the murder had not been premeditated. Prosecutions against several senior officials, including former royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani, were then dropped. Five defendants were sentenced to death and three others to prison terms, while three were acquitted. In May 2020, Jamal Khashoggi's sons announced that they forgave the killers, paving the way for the death sentences to be commuted. On 7 September 2020, Saudi courts issued their final verdicts: the eight convicted defendants received prison sentences ranging from seven to 20 years, with five receiving the maximum 20-year sentence. It remains unknown whether these individuals are still serving their sentences, are under house arrest, or if they have been released.

Political impunity and the execution of Turki al-Jasser

After Jamal Khashoggi's murder, MBS admitted to The Washington Post that the crime was a "mistake," but denied ordering it. In 2023, speaking to US broadcaster Fox News, he said that reforms had been introduced in the wake of the murder and that no other journalist had been killed since. However, on 14 June 2025, Saudi Arabia executed journalist Turki al-Jasser, who had been accused of "high treason". On the international stage, the political boycott has come to an end. MBS was recently received in Paris by French President Emmanuel Macron on 24 August, ahead of the announcement of Saudi investments in France.