A French judge will investigate the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, following a complaint filed by NGOs against Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, sources told AFP on Saturday.
The Middle East Eye and Washington Post journalist was murdered by Saudi Arabian agents at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. His body was dismembered and has never been found.
In 2021, the US administration released a report accusing bin Salman, also known as MBS, of ordering Khashoggi’s assassination.
The opening of the French investigation follows a complaint filed by the NGOs Trial International and Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), an organisation founded by Khashoggi shortly before his death.
They accuse the Saudi de facto leader of complicity in torture and enforced disappearance over his killing, saying he “ordered the assassination by asphyxiation”.
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They filed the complaint in July 2022, during a visit to France by bin Salman, and were subsequently joined by a complaint from Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The investigation will be entrusted to an investigating judge specialising in crimes against humanity, who will examine whether the complaint can lead to further proceedings.
It follows several years of legal proceedings, during which the public prosecutor’s office opposed the opening of an investigation in France, arguing that the NGOs’ claims were inadmissible.
But on Monday last week, the Paris Court of Appeal found the complaints admissible because “the possibility that the case could be classified as a crime against humanity could not be ruled out” before starting investigations.
The judge will investigate whether the assassination was committed as part of a “concerted plan” by the Saudi government against its opponents, constituting “a widespread or systematic attack” against civilians.
‘Abominable crime’
Dawn, which was ultimately unable to join the proceedings as a civil party, welcomed the investigation as “an important step towards justice”.
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“The crime committed against Jamal Khashoggi is an abominable crime decided and planned at the highest levels of the Saudi state, which had a journalist executed who was a dissenting and independent voice,” said Reporters Without Borders’ lawyer, Emmanuel Daoud.
“France is required to open an investigation against any person on national territory who is suspected of torture or enforced disappearance. There should no longer be any obstacle to opening a judicial inquiry into the atrocious crime [against] Jamal Khashoggi,” said Trial International’s lawyer Henri Thulliez.
The brutal killing of the journalist fuelled global outrage and resulted in the brief banishment of the Saudi crown prince by world leaders.
Bin Salman has denied ordering Khashoggi’s killing but has said it happened under his watch. In 2025, he referred to the assassination as “a huge mistake” during a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
In 2018, the kingdom held a closed-door trial over the killing that sentenced five people to death while exonerating MBS. The verdict was denounced by rights groups as an “antithesis of justice” and “a mockery”.
