Key Saudi figures in the Jamal Khashoggi murder investigation have so far escaped trial for his death. But while UN efforts to deliver justice have stalled, difficult questions about the killing still won't go away.
While MbS was quoted by US broadcaster CBS as accepting "full responsibility" for the crime on Sunday, he has denied ordering the killing, described as a "rogue" operation by Saudi officials.
UN investigators maintain the murder was "planned and perpetrated by officials of the state of Saudi Arabia."
What we know
Investigations by the CIA and UN claim a squad of 15 Saudis with diplomatic status, including a forensic expert carrying a bone saw, flew to Istanbul to intercept Khashoggi as he entered the Saudi consulate to arrange marriage papers.
Jamal Khashoggi: A mysterious disappearance and death
Official Saudi statements on the fate of journalist Jamal Khashoggi have changed several times since he disappeared at the Istanbul consulate on October 2. DW traces the most important events in this intricate case.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Martin
Vanishes into thin air
October 2: Prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to obtain an official document for his upcoming marriage to his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. He never emerged from the building, prompting Cengiz, who waited outside, to raise the alarm.
Image: Reuters TV
Confusion over whereabouts
October 3: Turkish and Saudi officials came up with conflicting reports on Khashoggi's whereabouts. Riyadh said the journalist had left the mission shortly after his work was done. But Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the journalist was still in the consulate.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/V. Mayo
Murder claims
October 6: Turkish officials said they believed the journalist was likely killed inside the Saudi consulate. The Washington Post, for which Khashoggi wrote, cited unnamed sources to report that Turkish investigators believe a 15-member team "came from Saudi Arabia" to kill the man.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Jamali
Ankara seeks proof
October 8: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Saudi Arabia to prove that Khashoggi left its consulate in Istanbul. Turkey also sought permission to search the mission premises. US President Donald Trump voiced concern about the journalist's disappearance.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/T. Kovacs
'Davos in the Desert' hit
October 12: British billionaire Richard Branson halted talks over a $1 billion Saudi investment in his Virgin group's space ventures, citing Khashoggi's case. He also pulled out of an investment conference in Riyadh dubbed the "Davos in the Desert." His move was followed by Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi, JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon and a host of other business leaders.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Search operation
October 15: Turkish investigators searched the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The search lasted more than eight hours and investigators removed samples from the building, including soil from the consulate garden and a metal door, one official said.
Image: Reuters/M. Sezer
Death after fistfight
October 19: Saudi Arabia finally admitted that Khashoggi died at the consulate. The kingdom's public prosecutor said preliminary investigations showed the journalist was killed in a "fistfight." He added that 18 people had been detained. A Saudi Foreign Ministry official said the country is "investigating the regrettable and painful incident."
Image: Getty Images/C. McGrath
'Grave mistake'
October 21: Saudi Arabia provided yet another account of what happened to Khashoggi. The kingdom's foreign minister admitted the journalist was killed in a "rogue operation," calling it a "huge and grave mistake," but insisted that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had not been aware of the murder. Riyadh said it had no idea where Khashoggi's body was.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/C. Owen
Germany halts arms sales
October 21: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany would put arms exports to Saudi Arabia on hold for the time being, given the unexplained circumstances of Khashoggi's death. Germany is the fourth largest exporter of weapons to Saudi Arabia after the United States, Britain and France.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Sauer
Strangled to death, dissolved in acid
October 31: The Turkish prosecutor concluded that Khashoggi was strangled to death soon after entering the consulate, and was then dismembered. Another Turkish official later claimed the body was dissolved in acid. Turkish President Erdogan said the order to murder the journalist came from "the highest levels" of Saudi Arabia's government.
Image: picture-alliance/AA/M. E. Yildirim
Grilled at the UN
November 5: Saudi Arabia told the United Nations it would prosecute those responsible for Khashoggi's murder. This came as the United States and dozens of other countries raised the journalist's death before the UN Human Rights Council and called for a transparent investigation.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/F. Coffrini
Fiancee in mourning
November 8: Khashoggi's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, wrote on Twitter that she was "unable to express her sorrow" upon learning that the journalist's body was dissolved with chemicals. "Are these killers and those behind it human beings?" she tweeted.
Image: Reuters/Haberturk
Turkey shares audio recordings
November 10: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reveals that officials from Saudi Arabia, the US, Germany, France and Britain have listened to audio recordings related to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Presidential Press Service
Symbolic funeral prayers
November 16: A symbolic funeral prayer for Khashoggi is held in the courtyard of the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul. Yasin Aktay, advisor to President Erdogan, speaks at the service.
Image: Reuters/M. Sezer
Saudi-owned villas searched
November 26: Turkish forensic police bring the investigation to the Turkish province of Yalova, where sniffer dogs and drones search two Saudi-owned villas in the village Samanli.
Image: Reuters/O . Orsal
100 days since killing
January 10: Amnesty International Turkey members demonstrate outside the Saudi Arabia Consulate in Istanbul, marking 100 day since the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. One woman holds up a street sign which reads "Jamal Khashoggi Street". The organization has called for an international investigation into the case.
Image: Reuters/M. Sezer
Saudi murder trial begins
January 3: The Khashoggi trial begins in Saudi Arabia, where state prosecutors say they will seek the death sentence for five of the eleven suspects. A request for the gathered evidence has been send to Turkish authorities. A date for the second hearing has not yet been set.
Image: picture-alliance/abaca/Depo Photos
UN inquiry team in Turkey
January 28: Agnes Callamard, who is leading the UN probe into the handling of the Khashoggi case, arrives in Ankara where she meets with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. The human rights expect will stay in the country for the rest of the week to speak with prosecutors and others involved in the case.
Turkish transcripts of audio recordings, seen but not authenticated by the UN investigation, suggested Khashoggi had been injected with a sedative, suffocated and dismembered. His body has not been found and investigators say the scene was forensically cleaned before the Turks were given access.
US senators briefed by the CIA pointed to a series of phone calls between MbS, his close aide Saud al-Qahtani and a member of the squad, which implicate the crown prince. UN rapporteur Agnes Callamard said the evidence of state organization of the crime demanded a criminal investigation which included MbS.
Saudi prosecutors have 11 suspects in a closed trial, with five of those facing the death penalty, but key figures such as al-Qahtani have been shielded from the process, which does not meet international standards, Callamard told DW.
Callamard has demanded a criminal investigation which includes MbSImage: Getty Images/AFP/F. Coffrini
"It's held behind closed doors. The masterminds are not included in the trial. It's not known why those 11 persons have been charged and no others, considering that there were 15 people in the kill team plus their accomplice in Riyadh," Callamard said. "The trial does not include Saud al-Qahtani even though the prosecutor himself had identified him in a public statement as a person who had incited the team to abduct Mr. Khashoggi."
Saudi prosecutors have said al-Qahtani's right-hand man Ahmed al-Asiri oversaw the operation to repatriate but not kill Khashoggi, but al-Qahtani himself has quietly disappeared since King Salman sacked him over the affair.
Turkish and Arab sources quoted by the Reuters news agency said al-Qahtani had been beamed into the Saudi consulate via Skype during the killing and had hurled insults at Khashoggi.
Yasmine Farouk, a Gulf expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told DW that sacrificing their intelligence staff for carrying out their alleged orders puts the Saudi leadership in a difficult position.
"If they hold their own people responsible for the death of Khashoggi, and it was someone from the palace that ordered it … it might have implications for their credibility inside their system," Farouk said.
What are the chances of finding the truth?
While Callamard's request for an international criminal investigation has so far not gained much traction, Khashoggi's murder is still a live feature of international diplomacy and US-Saudi relations.
MBS's image as modern reformer has come under pressure since the killingImage: picture-alliance/abaca/Balkis Press
"This crime and this report will always be there on the shelf, will always haunt Saudi Arabia and will always be there to be used in times of crises with Saudi Arabia," Farouk said.
"But beyond that, for the time being, if we are expecting concrete action from the UN, it will not happen," Farouk said.
Callamard said that although the Saudi trial is flawed, she believes we will reach a "definitive" and "credible" truth but "justice for Jamal must take other dimensions."
That means welcoming new evidence from journalists, intelligence agencies and government; directing sanctions at much higher elements within the state; celebrating the values Khashoggi died for and strengthening protections for journalists.
International fallout
Although there have been signs of a thaw in relations since Riyadh's Western allies rallied to support Saudi Arabia against what it called Iranian attacks on its oil facilities in September, relations are still rocky.
On Thursday, a Saudi attempt to block a UN Human Rights Council investigation into Yemen war atrocities was voted down, despite heavy lobbying.
The US Congress has passed several measures denouncing the Saudi leadership, but President Donald Trump has vetoed legislation to block arms sales and withdraw support for the war in Yemen in order to maintain a strategic partner against Iran.
Germany has extended a freeze on Saudi arms sales prompted by the killing, but has announced it will restart joint police training, while it also joined the UK and France in expressing"full solidarity” in blaming Iran for recent attacks.
For Callamard, Khashoggi's legacy lays in his inspiration of young Saudi critics and how his death has tarnished the reformist image MbS has tried to cultivate.
"His reputation as the modernist king or prince has been uncovered for what it is, a very empty shell at the end of the day," Callamard said. "The emperor is naked and the servants will be increasingly speaking out."
Twenty-six journalists have been killed in the year since Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi's murder on October 2, 2018, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
