A Paris magistrate specialising in crimes against humanity will formally investigate the 2018 assassination of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, following a court of appeal ruling in favour of rights groups that had filed complaints against Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of the Saudi government, was strangled and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul — a killing that US intelligence concluded was ordered by the crown prince. The case, brought by organisations including Reporters Without Borders and Democracy for the Arab World Now, centres on charges of torture and enforced disappearance, and marks a significant legal breakthrough after French prosecutors had long resisted opening proceedings on admissibility grounds.