Saudi prosecutor demands death penalty for five in Khashoggi killing

Five Saudi officials face the death penalty over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was drugged and dismembered inside the Kingdom's Istanbul consulate, Riyadh's public prosecutor said on Thursday.

A total of 11 people were charged, the Saudi Public Prosecutor's office said, adding that the five people facing capital punishment were directly involved in "ordering and executing the crime."

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and vocal dissident, died after being drugged by the five accused and then dismembered, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said in the first Saudi acknowledgement of the manner of his killing.

The journalist's body parts were then handed over to an agent outside the consulate grounds, the spokesman said.

Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor exonerated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, accusing two senior officials of giving the orders.

A spokesman for the public prosecutor's office denied Prince Mohammed had any knowledge of the killing inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate, in response to a journalist's question.

The spokesman said the deputy chief of Saudi intelligence, General Ahmed al-Assiri, had given an order to force Khashoggi home — and "the head of the negotiating team" that flew to Istanbul had ordered his murder.