Royal court ex-adviser Qahtani, who is allegedly involved in Khashoggi’s killing, not present at trials, officials say.

One of the two top Saudi royal officials linked to journalist Jamal Khashoggi‘s killing has been absent in the closed-door trial of 11 suspects, multiple sources have told the AFP news agency.

Saudi prosecutors have said that deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Asiri oversaw the Washington Post columnist’s killing in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate last October and that he was advised by the royal court’s media tsar Saud al-Qahtani.

Both aides were part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman‘s tight-knit inner circle and have formally been sacked over the killing but only al-Asiri has appeared in the five court hearings since January, according to four Western officials privy to the information.

“Qahtani is not among the 11 facing trial,” one of the Western officials told AFP. “What does his absence mean? Are the Saudis eager to protect him or discipline him separately? No one knows.”

The kingdom’s public prosecutor last November indicted 11 unnamed suspects, including five who could face the death penalty over the murder.

Diplomats from the UN Security Council’s permanent members, the US, Britain, France, China, Russia, as well as Turkey are allowed to attend as observers of the legal proceedings that are held entirely in Arabic.

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They are not allowed to bring interpreters and are usually summoned at short notice, the sources said.

Maher Mutreb, an intelligence operative who frequently travelled with the crown prince on foreign tours, forensic expert Salah al-Tubaigy and Fahad al-Balawi, a member of the Saudi royal guard, are among the 11 on trial who could face the death penalty, the officials said.

The defendants are allowed legal counsel.

Many of them have defended themselves in court by saying they were carrying out orders by al-Asiri, describing him as the “ringleader” of the operation, according to the officials.

Al-Qahtani missing

Al-Asiri, lionised in Saudi military ranks as a war hero, does not face the death penalty, the Western officials added.

Believed to have previously worked closely with US intelligence, he is also not named in two US sanctions lists of Saudis implicated in the murder.

Al-Qahtani, who led fiery social media campaigns against critics of the kingdom and was seen as a conduit to the crown prince, is on both lists.

He met the Saudi hit squad team before they left for Turkey to share “useful information related to the mission based on his specialisation in media,” according to the Saudi prosecutor’s office.

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But he has not appeared publicly since the murder and his current whereabouts are a subject of fevered speculation.

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported earlier this year that Prince Mohammed continues to seek his counsel, citing US and Saudi sources.

“Qahtani holds a lot of files and dossiers,” Ignatius quoted one American who met the crown prince as saying.

“The idea that you can have a radical rupture with him is unrealistic.”

‘Prince Mohammed’s order’

The CIA has reportedly said the murder was likely ordered by Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler and heir to the throne.

Saudi authorities strongly deny the allegation, and in private conversations with Western officials they have instead criticised Turkish authorities for failing to stop the killing.

“Their intelligence knew that a (Saudi) hit squad was coming. They could have stopped them!” a Saudi official was quoted as saying.

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Turkish officials were the first to report Khashoggi’s murder and have continued to press Saudi Arabia for information on the whereabouts of his dismembered body, which has yet to be found.

Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur conducting an independent inquiry into the killing, last month condemned what she called a lack of transparency in the legal proceedings and demanded an open trial.

The kingdom “is grievously mistaken if it believes that these proceedings, as currently constituted, will satisfy the international community,” she said.

It was unclear when the Saudi trial will conclude.