The brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi sparked worldwide horror. But now the sons of the Saudi journalists have forgiven his murderers and this could prevent them from getting the death penalty.

Riyadh (Reuters) - The family of the murdered dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has forgiven the perpetrators according to their own information.

"We, the sons of the Martyr Jamal Khashoggi, declare that we forgive those who have killed our father," wrote Kashoggis the eldest son of Salah on Friday on Twitter.

This step may mean that the perpetrators of the death penalty to be missed. Khashoggis Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz and human rights activists have reacted with sharp criticism, because of the fear that the real culprits go unpunished.

The Declaration comes shortly before the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan this weekend. Traditionally, to be proclaimed to the occasion in many Muslim countries, and amnesties. Salah Khashoggi quoted from the Koran, according to which those at the reward of God may hope, the vergäben and for the compensation provided.

A Saudi criminal court had convicted in December in the case of Kashoggi five men in an internationally criticized procedures to death, three defendants received long prison sentences. A total of eleven persons were before the court. The names of the defendants should remain under seal, until the judgments are legally binding. The Saudi Analyst Ali Schihabi came on Friday to the conclusion that the perpetrators escaped the death penalty because the family in Saudi Arabia is Islamic law (Sharia), the right to forgiveness.

Khashoggi was on 2. October 2018 has been killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by a special command from the Riad, as he wanted to pick up the papers for the wedding with his wife Hatice Cengiz. The Saudi government admitted the murder to international pressure. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but denied, to have the killing itself is arranged. In the investigation of the traces in the direct environment of the monarch but the monarch.

Hatice Cengiz wrote on Friday on Twitter, this heinous murder have no Statute of limitations. No one has the right to forgive his murderers. The head of the Human rights organization Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, tweeted, one could only imagine what "combination of bribes and threats" have brought the sons to forgive the brutal killers of her father.

The UN special Rapporteur for the case, Agnès Callamard, said that Saudi Arabia had repeatedly proved that the country wanted, in the event Khashoggis no justice. "This is the last part of the impunity puzzles, the last act of a judicial parody that is played before the world public." The killer would be free to run around. Callamard came in a report of investigation to the conclusion that there is credible evidence of a possible personal responsibility of the crown Prince Mohammed and other high-ranking representatives of Saudi Arabia.

Salah Khashoggi, who lives in Saudi Arabia, had already expressed earlier on behalf of the family of the murder. After the fact, king Salman and crown Prince kondolierten him during a visit to the Palace. Last autumn, Salah Khashoggi accused then opponents of Saudi Arabia, to the death of his father, for their purposes.

Tweet Salah Khashoggi

Tweet Agnes Callamard

Tweet Hatice Cengiz