French judge to probe journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing

A judge in France is set to probe the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi after rights groups filed a complaint against Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, commonly called MBS.

Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post and a critic of MBS, was assassinated in 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, while on a visit to obtain papers for his marriage.

During Salman’s visit to France in July 2022, the Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and the rights group Trial International petitioned the French courts on the killing.

The widespread demand for justice has since been amplified by activists and several other organizations, including press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders, RSF.

Speaking ahead of the inquiry, Emmanuel Daoud, a lawyer for RSF, said Khashoggi was a victim of an abominable crime, “decided and planned at the highest level of the Saudi state.”

Henri Thulliez, a lawyer for Trial International, stated that “there should no longer be any obstacle” to a judicial investigation into the “atrocious crime committed against Khashoggi.”

During President Joe Biden’s tenure, the United States government indicted MBS in the killing of Khashoggi, releasing a report of the intelligence community’s assessment in 2021.

But during the November 2025 meeting with MBS in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump seemed to have exonerated the crown prince, saying: “He knew nothing about it.”