Yemeni Islamist activist Tawakkol Karman has criticized the decision, which will mean that those convicted will not face the death penalty

Jamal Khashoggi's sons forgive their father's murderers

photo_camera PHOTO/Saudi Press Agency via AP - Salah Khashoggi, left, firstborn of Jamal Khashoggi, shakes hands with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

"On this virtuous night of this holy month, we recall what Almighty God said in His holy book: ‘The repayment of bad actions, is one equivalent to it, but whoever pardons and makes reconciliation his reward lies with God. He does not love the unjust’. Thus, we, the sons of the martyr Jamal Khashoggi, announce that we forgive those who killed our father - may he rest in peace - for the sake of God Almighty, hopefully seeking reward with the Almighty”. 

Through this powerful message, Salah Khashoggi, the eldest son of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has made public his decision to forgive the men who were found guilty of his father's murder. The famous Saudi Arabia journalist, who was murdered in December 2018 at his home country's consulate in Istanbul, had repeatedly criticised the Riyadh monarchy in his regular columns in the prestigious Washington Post. 

In December 2019, five people were sentenced to death for a crime that generated great criticism against the Saudi Arabian government and in particular the Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman. At the trial, three other individuals were sentenced to 24 years' imprisonment for a cover-up. Three others were acquitted, as the Saudi Arabian General Prosecutor's Office did not find sufficient evidence to link them to the case. 

The exonerated were Saud al-Qahtani, Bin Salman's adviser and most trusted man; Ahmed Asiri, deputy director of the Saudi Arabian secret services; and Mohamed al-Otaibi, the country's consul in Istanbul. Of the three, Al-Qahtani raised the most suspicions, as he was held directly responsible for the assassination in a public statement by the U.S. Treasury Department.

The pardon announced by Khashoggi's sons does not imply, however, that the crime will go unpunished. What it does mean is that the sentence of death by decapitation will be annulled. The death penalty is likely to be commuted to a prison sentence, the length of which will vary depending on whether or not there was intent. According to the lawyer Mohammed Mahmoud, consulted by the daily Arab News, the period of imprisonment, according to the sharia, should be five years if it is proven that it was a murder, but it would be reduced by half if it was a homicide.

Archival photograph of Salah Khashoggi, son of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi
Interested reactions

The decision of Khashoggi's family has already generated reactions from various relevant voices, and not all of them are going in the same direction. International political analyst Hamdan al-Shehri, consulted by the newspaper, calls the decision "patriotic" and says: "What Khashoggi's sons have done is not only a great human and religious gesture, but they were aware that there are people who have used the Khashoggi case to advance their own political agendas from outside the kingdom, so they have sealed the deal.

Without mentioning it, Al-Shehri refers to the strategy carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood, who, since the details of the case became known, have tried to use the matter to attack the Saudi monarchy in their own interests. It should be remembered that the Brotherhood, one of the main transnational entities of the most conservative political Islamism, has been declared a terrorist organization by Egypt, its country of origin, and that Saudi Arabia is opposed to its expansion through Muslim-majority countries.

In particular, one of the most vocal voices is that of Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2011 for her role in the revolution against former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. However, Karman and the political formation to which she is linked, Al-Islah, have strong connections with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Timeline of Jamal Khashoggi's murder

In his official Twitter account, Karman has charged hard against Khashoggi's first-born son: "When will Salah Khashoggi understand that it is not his right to exempt his father's killers? (...) It is not a crime against him that he can forgive in exchange for an MBS [Mohamed bin Salman] villa.

The point is that there are still strident voices about this case when the issue does not even remotely concern them, as if their love for Jamal Khashoggi is greater than that of their own family and children," the analyst Al-Shehri comments.

Karman, for his part, has been in the public eye for several weeks. The Yemeni Islamist has recently been appointed by Facebook to one of the posts on its new Supervisory Board. The aim of this body is to detect hate speech on the social network founded by Mark Zuckerberg and to stop it spreading. Numerous intellectuals and anonymous citizens have spoken out against the appointment, since they consider paradoxical that somebody who supports the Brotherhood takes part in this task.

More in Politics