On Friday, a Turkish court will try the trial of 20 Saudi officials accused of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, a move that his fiancée hopes will highlight the crime and reveal the location of his dead body.

In March, the Prosecutor's Office said that the Istanbul prosecutors' indictment accused Ahmed Asiri, former deputy chief of General Intelligence and former Royal Court adviser Saud al-Qahtani, of inciting "intentional killing."

The list shows that 18 other defendants carried out the killing by strangling Khashoggi, whose criticism of the Kingdom's de facto ruler, Prince Muhammad bin Salman, has intensified.

All 20 accused are expected to be tried in absentia.

That crime - which occurred in October 2018 at the headquarters of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and sparked widespread anger - destroyed the relations between Ankara and Riyadh and tarnished the prince's image globally.

Some Western governments and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) say they believe that it was the Saudi crown prince who issued the order to kill Khashoggi, a charge denied by Saudi officials.

Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate to obtain documents for his marriage, and Turkish officials said that his body had been cut and removed from the building, but had not been found.

Expose evidence

His fiancée, Khadija Genghis, who was waiting for him in front of the consulate on the day of his killing, told Reuters, "I hope this criminal case in Turkey will shed light on the location of Gamal's remains and reveal the evidence that condemns his killers."

It was not clear whether Saudi Arabia would cooperate with the court’s hearing on Friday.

In December a Saudi court sentenced five people to death and three to prison for Khashoggi’s murder, after a largely secret trial.

The Khashoggi family later said that it had pardoned his killers, paving the way for a legal amnesty.

Khadija said that neither trial nor pardon took place in accordance with the procedures to be followed. She added that no one can trust the "trial" that took place in Saudi Arabia, because "it was conducted in secret and the names of the people against them were not mentioned."

Turkey has accused Saudi officials of obstructing investigations at the consulate, while Riyadh has repeatedly said that the prosecution in Istanbul has not complied with the request to exchange information.

The Saudi crown prince denied that he had issued the order to kill, but said he bore ultimate responsibility as the de facto ruler of the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia initially denied any connection or knowledge of the killing of Khashoggi and then changed its position several times after that.