As much as Saudi Arabia would have liked its flashy investment forum in Riyadh last week to have dominated the headlines, the continuing fallout from the death of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi led the front pages of most news outlets.

It's hardly surprising given the amount of incriminating evidence that Turkey appears to have amassed in its investigation into the journalist's death, and incredulity towards Saudi Arabia's claims that Khashoggi died in a fistfight within the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. The kingdom's public prosecutor has since said that the killing was premeditated and Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said Saturday that prosecutions would take place in Saudi Arabia.

While the kingdom might appear to be losing the public relations war against a body of evidence and a barrage of negative headlines, its economic firepower is going to save it from defeat.

That Saudi Arabia is the largest arms importer, and the largest oil exporter, in the world and that could be the kingdom's saving grace — and for all its condemnation of Khashoggi's death, the West knows it.