11/16/18 The U . S . Treasury Department has announced sanctions against 17 Saudi officials it says were involved in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi . They ' ll be cut off from U . S . businesses or assets .
The group includes senior officials but not the country ' s powerful crown prince . The Treasury announcement came just after Saudi Arabia ' s top prosecutor announced he ' ll seek the death penalty for five Saudis involved in the killing .
NPR ' s Jackie Northam reports . The Treasury Department said it was sanctioning Saudi officials who targeted and brutally killed Jamal Khashoggi .
Among them is Saoud al - Qahtani , a royal court adviser who is close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and headed up his communication strategy .
The Treasury Department said al - Qahtani took part in the planning and execution of the operation to kill the Saudi journalist . Also sanctioned is Mohammed al - Otaibi . He oversaw the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul where Khashoggi died in early October .
These are the things , I think , that the administration believes that they need to do in order to try to put this issue behind us and be able to move on with the relationship .
That ' s Gerald Feierstein , director of Gulf affairs at the Middle East Institute and former U . S . ambassador to Yemen . He says the U . S . sanctions are a good step , but they do little to answer the one burning question .
Did Saudi Arabia ' s powerful crown prince order Khashoggi ' s death ? My guess is that until people are satisfied that the investigation has gone to the most senior levels of the Saudi government , particularly the crown prince ,
it ' s unlikely that there ' s going to be a level of satisfaction . In Riyadh earlier today , Saudi Arabia ' s top prosecutor did try to answer lingering questions .
He wrapped up the kingdom ' s investigation into Khashoggi ' s death . A spokesman for the prosecutor described the operation to kill Khashoggi , that it had been planned three days in advance
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