US sanctions 17 for role in killing of Saudi journalist Khashoggi

Those to be sanctioned include Saud al-Qahtani as well as the Saudi Consul General Mohammed Alotaibi

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury will announce on Thursday sanctions on 17 Saudis for their role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to a source familiar with the administration’s plans.

Those to be sanctioned include Saud al-Qahtani, a former top aide to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as the Saudi Consul General Mohammed Alotaibi, the source said.



The sanctions will be implemented under the Global Magnitsky Act, which imposes sanctions over human rights abuses, the source said.

Among others facing sanctions are Maher Mutreb, an aide to Qahtani who has appeared in photographs with Prince Mohammed on official visits this year to the United States and Europe.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said he was seeking the death penalty for five out of 11 suspects charged in the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi.



Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi policy, was killed in the country’s Istanbul consulate on October 2 after a struggle by a lethal injection dose and his body was dismembered and taken out of the building, he told reporters in Riyadh.

President Tayyip Erdogan said recordings related to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, which Turkey has shared with Western allies, are ‘appalling’ and shocked a Saudi intelligence officer who listened to them, Turkish media reported on Tuesday.