Saudi admits journalist Khashoggi dismembered in consulate
AFP
1542279186000

VCG31N1066334996.jpg

Hatice Cengiz, fiancee of murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, reacts while watching a tribute video during a commemorative ceremony held on November 11, 2018 in Istanbul Turkey. (File photo: VCG)

Five Saudi officials face the death penalty over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was drugged and dismembered inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate, Riyadh's public prosecutor said Thursday.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and vocal dissident, died after being drugged by the five accused and then dismembered, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said in the first Saudi acknowledgement of the manner of his killing.

The journalist's body parts were then handed over to an agent outside the consulate grounds, the spokesman said.