The trial of men accused of murdering Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018 has resumed in Turkey.
Twenty Saudi officials who are not in Turkey are being tried in absentia.
A leading critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Mr. Khashoggi was killed by a team of Saudi agents inside the kingdom’s consulate. Turkey claims he was suffocated and then dismembered.
Among the accused are two former collaborators of the prince, who deny any involvement.
A close friend of Mr Khashoggi’s, Egyptian political dissident Ayman Noor, told the court that the journalist felt threatened by people close to Crown Prince Mohammed.
He said Mr. Khashoggi told him he had been personally threatened by Saudi media mogul Saud al-Qahtani.
“Noor said that Mr. Khashoggi had revealed before his death that he had been threatened by Saoud al-Qahtani since 2016,” Rebecca Vincent of Reporters Without Borders said in a tweet sent from the courtroom.
Khashoggi spoke of a phone call from Qahtani while living in Washington DC, saying he knew his children and where they lived. Nour said that Khashoggi was crying, which was unusual, and that he had feared”.
Saudi Arabia, which rejected Turkey’s extradition request, convicted eight people of the murder last year.
