A French investigating judge will examine a criminal complaint accusing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of involvement in the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, France’s national anti‑terrorism prosecutor’s office said Saturday. The step follows a May 11 ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal that found the complaint admissible — a procedural milestone that keeps the case alive in a Western court years after the crown prince began to re‑emerge from the international isolation that followed the murder.
The complaint was filed in 2022 by two rights organizations, Trial International and Reporters Without Borders, during a visit to France by Prince Mohammed. The groups accuse the Saudi ruler of complicity in torture and enforced disappearance over the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist who was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. His body has never been found.
The prosecutor’s office, known as the PNAT, said the case will now be handled by an investigating judge from the specialized crimes against humanity unit. In a statement, the PNAT noted that the appeals court found the complaints admissible because the possibility that the case could be classified as a crime against humanity — potentially including the underlying crimes of torture and enforced disappearance — could not be ruled out at this stage. The prosecutor’s office said it took note of the decision while adding that the ruling did not invalidate its own interpretation of whether the groups were entitled to file as civil parties under French criminal procedure.
The opening of a formal judicial inquiry does not mean the crown prince has been charged or that French judges have found him responsible. It initiates a phase in which an investigating judge will determine whether the complaint can lead to further proceedings. Prince Mohammed has denied ordering Khashoggi’s killing but has acknowledged that it occurred under his watch as Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler. A U.S. intelligence assessment previously concluded that he approved the operation that led to the journalist’s death.
Saudi Arabia conducted a closed‑door trial over the killing and said it punished those responsible, but rights groups have criticized the proceedings as opaque and insufficient. The French judicial step revives a previously stalled criminal avenue at a time when the crown prince has been received again by Western leaders and dignitaries, having moved past the isolation that followed the 2018 murder.