Saudi court sentences 8 for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi
07 September 2020
A Saudi court has sentenced eight nationals for the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi on Monday, AP reports.
Why it matters: The trial has been widely criticized, including by an independent UN investigator. No senior official or anyone suspected of ordering the killing was found guilty. The Saudi government has long maintained that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had no knowledge or involvement in the assassination, despite the CIA concluding last year that he gave the order.
The state of play: The names of those convicted have not been made public, per AP.
- Five of the individuals were ordered to serve a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, one will serve 10 years, and two were ordered to serve seven years.
Background: Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018.
- The official Saudi story changed several times in the aftermath of the murder, and the government has never offered a full accounting of how and why the crime was carried out, or who gave the order.
Go deeper: A year after Jamal Khashoggi's murder, Saudi trial veiled in secrecy
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.