London: A Saudi Arabian court has commuted the death sentences of five of the eight people convicted for the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a “rogue operation” as his family has pardoned them, reports said.
The five men will now serve jail terms of 20 years each, the BBC reported citing local media.
The jail terms of seven to 10 years for three other accused have been upheld.
The verdict comes after Khashoggi’s sons had said in May they had “pardoned” the killers, a move condemned as a “parody of justice” by a United Nations’ expert.
Recently, UN spokesman Rupert Colville, while noting that the global body opposes the death penalty, said the Khashoggi trial lacked transparency and fell short on assigning accountability for the crime.
Khashoggi, who was openly critical of the Saudi government, was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey’s Istanbul by a team of Saudi agents, which the kingdom’s government termed a “rogue operation” after the incident came to light and caused an international uproar.
