{"id":650,"date":"2026-05-17T02:08:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=650"},"modified":"2026-05-17T02:08:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:08:36","slug":"france-opens-probe-into-jamal-khashoggi-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=650","title":{"rendered":"France opens probe into Jamal Khashoggi killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rights groups and a Biden-era US intelligence report alleged that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the murder<\/strong><\/p>\n

France has opened an investigation into the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi after NGOs accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of complicity in the killing.<\/p>\n

The 59-year-old journalist and Washington Post columnist was killed in 2018 while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. His body is believed to have been dismembered and was never recovered. Saudi authorities acknowledged that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate but insisted that rogue officials carried out the operation without authorization from the leadership.<\/p>\n

In July 2022, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)\u00a0\u2013 Khashoggi\u2019s former organization\u00a0\u2013 <\/strong> and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) filed a legal complaint accusing Mohammed bin Salman of complicity in torture and enforced disappearance as part of an organized group. The complaint alleged that he ordered \u201cthe murder by asphyxiation\u201d<\/em> of Khashoggi.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
Trump pulled plug on \u2018Project Freedom\u2019 after Saudi snub \u2013 NBC<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

France\u2019s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor\u2019s Office (PNAT) opposed opening the investigation, a position criticized by RSF lawyer Emmanuel Daoud as \u201crealpolitik in the name of France\u2019s superior economic interests so as not to anger the Saudi authorities.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Paris Court of Appeal has now ruled that \u201cthe possibility that these acts could be classified as crimes against humanity cannot be ruled out.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAn investigating judge from the crimes against humanity unit will now examine the complaint,\u201d<\/em> the prosecutor\u2019s office told AFP on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Khashoggi once served as an adviser to the Saudi government and was close to the royal family before becoming a prominent critic of the kingdom\u2019s leadership and relocating to the US. Saudi prosecutors said the journalist died after being forcibly restrained and injected with an overdose of drugs during what they described as a failed attempt to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

A US intelligence report released by the Biden administration in 2021 concluded that Mohammed bin Salman exercised \u201cabsolute control\u201d<\/em> over the kingdom and that Saudi security organizations had approved an operation to \u201ccapture or kill\u201d<\/em> Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia rejected the assessment as \u201cfalse and unacceptable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump, however, said last year that the crown prince \u201cknew nothing\u201d<\/em> about the plan to kill the journalist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rights groups and a Biden-era US intelligence report alleged that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}