The son of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has released a statement forgiving his killers.
Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government, was killed inside the kingdom’s consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul in October 2018.
Saudi officials maintain his death was a result of a “rogue operation” and was not state sanctioned.
But their account of events has been doubted internationally, including by some intelligence agencies and the UN.
Khashoggi had been writing for the Washington Post newspaper and living in the US before his death.
After offering changing accounts of his disappearance, Saudi authorities eventually submitted he was killed in a botched operation by a team tasked with getting him to return to the country.
In December 2019, a court sentenced five unnamed men to death for their role in his killing after a secretive trial in Riyadh.
A United Nations special rapporteur, Agnes Callamard, labelled the Saudi trial the “antithesis of justice” and urged an independent investigation.
The statement was posted to the Twitter account of Salah Khashoggi, one of the late journalist’s sons, on Friday.
“In this blessed night of the blessed month [of Ramadan] we remember God’s saying: If a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah,” Salah, who lives in the Saudi city of Jeddah, wrote.
“Therefore we the sons of the Martyr Jamal Khashoggi announce pardoning those who killed our father, seeking reward God almighty.”
