From [HERE] An Istanbul court on Thursday halted the Turkish murder trial of Saudi security officials charged with killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, amid efforts by Ankara to improve relations with the kingdom.

The court granted a request from prosecutors to refer the case to authorities in Saudi Arabia, where a separate trial sentenced eight lower-level officials to prison over the killing, but spared senior leaders from accountability.

The ruling closes off an important avenue for justice in the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and prominent critic of the Saudi government, rights advocates said. Human-rights groups had urged Turkey not to transfer the case back to Saudi Arabia, arguing that doing so would end hopes of accountability in the case and stop key evidence of the murder from becoming public.

“In the same way Saudi Arabia covered up the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, Turkey is now covering up its own investigation and its findings,” said Agnes Callamard, a former United Nations special rapporteur who investigated the killing and is now secretary-general of Amnesty International. “Let’s not forget how Jamal was killed. Let’s not forget that the Saudi authorities never revealed what they did with his body after their officials dismembered him on the floor of the Saudi consulate. Now, they will also have to deal with Turkey’s cowardice and denial of justice.”

A team of Saudi operatives killed and dismembered Mr. Khashoggi inside Saudi Arabia’s consulate in 2018 after he entered to secure documents for his coming wedding. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said Saudi officials carried out the murder but denied personal responsibility.

U.A.E. Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, right, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Dubai in February.PHOTO: TURKISH PRESIDENT PRESS OFFICE H/SHUTTERSTOCK

Mr. Khashoggi’s fiancee, Turkish academic Hatice Cengiz, said after Thursday’s decision that she wasn’t done fighting for justice. “The courts might have decided that they can ignore the truth about his case, but I will not stop and I will not be quiet about it,” she tweeted. “We all know who is guilty of Jamal’s murder and it is now more important than ever that I keep going.”

Ms. Cengiz filed a civil action in Washington in 2020 against Prince Mohammed and other Saudis accusing him of ordering the killing. The case was brought jointly with Democracy for the Arab World Now, a U.S.-based nonprofit set up to promote human rights and the rule of law that Mr. Khashoggi founded while living in self-exile in Washington.

A Central Intelligence Agency assessment found that Prince Mohammed likely ordered the murder himself, but Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader has largely escaped punishment. Still, he has been regarded as a pariah by much of the world since the killing.