Khashoggi

Main opposition Republican People's Party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has vowed that if his party comes to power in the upcoming elections, they will reopen the case of Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist who was killed on the premises of the Saudi Arabia's General Consulate in Istanbul, which was transferred to Saudi legal institutions.

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler will on June 22 take another step towards breaking his international isolation by paying his first visit to Türkiye since the murder in 2018 of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit Türkiye on June 22, a senior Turkish official told AFP on June 17, as Ankara and Riyadh move on from the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan traveled to Saudi Arabia on April 28 to mend a rift between the countries caused by the murder of Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate in 2018.

The two-day trip comes as Ankara and Riyadh have, in recent months, attempted to repair some diplomatic damage after a decade of tension.

Khashoggi was assassinated in 2018, and the CIA later concluded that MBS personally ordered his killing

An event in October 2020 marking the two-year anniversary of the assassination of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Photo: EPA-EFE/TOLGA BOZOGLU

Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 when he visited the consulate to arrange his marriage papers.

A court in Ankara has rejected an appeal by Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, against the Justice Ministry's approval for transferring the trial to Saudi Arabia.

A Turkish court's decision on the suspension and transfer of trial regarding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is in line with laws, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has said.

"[The court's ruling] does not mean that the case will be dismissed or the transfer of the jurisdiction," Bozdağ tweeted on April 15.

People hold pictures of Jamal Khashoggi at an event marking the second anniversary of his murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, on 2 October 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/TOLGA BOZOGLU.

The decision shocked human rights defenders who said this would end all hope of justice in the case.

A Turkish court ruled on April 7 to suspend the trial in absentia of 26 Saudis accused in the gruesome killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and for the case to be transferred to Saudi Arabia.