Some members of a Saudi strike team convicted of …
involvement in the gruesome killing of renowned journalist Jamal Khashoggi are living “in seven-star accommodations” inside a security complex run by the Saudi regime in Riyadh.
According to a report published by the British newspaper The Guardian, a source connected to prominent members of Saudi intelligence said the killers would be housed in villas and buildings run by Saudi Arabia’s State Security Presidency. Family members are able to visit these men often, who also have a gym and work spaces at their disposal.
All three men were among the defendants convicted in December 2019 before the so-called Riyad Criminal Court, in a sham trial, for “directly committing to the murder” of the Washington Post columnist.
The source confirmed that Salah al-Tubaigy, the forensic scientist who dismembered Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, is part of the group living inside the facility. Mustafa al-Madani, the stand-in sent by the strike team to create the ruse by which Khashoggi left the consulate alive, was also seen, as was Mansour Abahussein, who is accused of leading the operation.
The facts confirm Riyadh’s total involvement in Khashoggi’s murder, while Saud al-Qahtani, a former aide to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), is quietly returning to power, with social media influencers loyal to the Riyadh regime seeking to “clean him up.” Qahtani was acquitted of any involvement in Khashoggi’s murder, despite a Western intelligence assessment that he masterminded the assassination at the behest of the Saudi crown prince.
Khashoggi was murdered on October 2, 2018 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a document attesting to his divorce so he could marry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz. The recording and other evidence collected by Turkish authorities revealed how a team of Saudi agents killed and then dismembered the journalist inside the diplomatic compound.
Saudi Arabia initially published conflicting stories about Khashoggi’s disappearance, but eventually claimed he was killed in a “rogue” operation. In addition, a U.S. judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Saudi state-owned company against former senior Saudi intelligence official Saad al-Jabri. He ruled that an intervention by the U.S. government to stop the release of classified information prevented the case from proceeding.
“This is a private action between cooperating entities and al-Jabri. The kingdom is not a party to this action. Any investigation should be directed to the companies involved,” said a Saudi government source.
Jabri was a close associate of Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a former Saudi interior minister who was expelled from MbS as heir to the throne in a coup in 2017. Jabri fled to Canada and claimed in a 2020 U.S. lawsuit that Canadian authorities foiled a plot to kill him by an “assault team” sent by MbS. The incident allegedly occurred less than two weeks after Khashoggi’s murder.
