Germany: Journalist body remembers Khashoggi

BERLIN (AA) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Tuesday staged a protest near Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Berlin, as they marked the first anniversary of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Carrying posters and banners with pictures of Khashoggi, RSF members demanded an independent and international probe into the killing of Saudi journalist.

RSF Germany director Christian Mihr accused Saudi Arabia of committing a “state crime” and urged the international community to increase pressure on Riyadh.

“Relations cannot be normalized with Saudi Arabia as long as this state continues to block efforts to determine the full truth about the murder of Khashoggi,” he said in a statement.

Khashoggi, a Saudi national and columnist for The Washington Post, was murdered brutally on Oct. 2, 2018 inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

After weeks of denying involvement, the kingdom admitted later that Khashoggi had been killed at the consulate but claimed that the Saudi royal family had no prior knowledge of a plot to murder him.

According to reports by the UN and other independent organizations, he was murdered and dismembered. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accepted responsibility for the killing but denied ordering the murder.