CAIRO, December 23. /TASS/. A Saudi court has sentenced five people to death for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi prosecutors informed during a press conference in Riyadh on Monday, the Sky News Arabia TV channel reports.

Three more people have been sentenced to 24 years behind bars. In total, 11 people were prosecuted in relation to the murder.

The investigation concluded that there had been no previous intent by those found guilty of the murder, the prosecutors stated. "All those found guilty stood trial," they added. Saud al-Qahtani, a former advisor to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was among the suspects in the case; however, no charges have been pressed against him.

Khashoggi, known for his criticism of Riyadh’s policies, left his native Saudi Arabia and relocated to the United States in 2017, where he began working for The Washington Post. There he analyzed the situation in Saudi Arabia and the country’s foreign policy. On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and disappeared. On October 20, 2018, Saudi authorities announced that the journalist had died in a fight in the Saudi diplomatic mission. The international community condemned Khashoggi’s murder and called for a transparent investigation.

On November 15, 2018, Saudi prosecutors published the preliminary results of the investigation: 11 people were charged for involvement in the murder, five of them faced death sentences. According to Riyadh, those involved in the murder first planned to transport Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia instead of killing him. On December 5, 2018, a Turkish court issued arrest warrants for former deputy head of the Saudi intelligence services Ahmad Asiri, Saud al-Qahtani, and 15 Saudi citizens accused of Khashoggi’s murder.