Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
26th Congress of the International Academy of Legal Medicine (IALM 2024), Athens, Yunanistan, 21 - 23 Mayıs 2024, (Yayınlanmadı)
Within the scope of forensic sciences, the clarification of the case and the judicial process in mass and individual deaths are sometimes under the influence of various political mechanisms. The concepts of necropolitics and thanatopolitics are sociological terms used to explain this kind of political mechanisms, the relationship between death and political power, and bring pre- and post-death practices into discussion. Achille Mbembe's term “Necropolitics” is simply defined as the use of political power to determine who lives and who dies. As a form of sovereignty that includes the authority to decide on death, Necropolitics aims to maintain power and control over an individual, group, or population by instilling fear and terror through violence and death. Thanatopolitics, on the other hand, is related to pre-death (which is similar to Necropolitics) as well as post-death practices. Thanatopolitics either refers to the use of death and/or the threat of death as a political tool to mobilize populations or how the procedural management of dead bodies can be used to strengthen political power structures. In this study, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was tried to be explained in the context of Forensic Sciences, Necropolitics and Thanatopolitics. Jamal Khashoggi, an opposition journalist known for his criticism of the Saudi government, was never heard from again after he went to the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, and it was later claimed by the Saudi authorities that he died as a result of an accident. However, during the investigation process, it was proved that the incident was a case of murder. Saudi Arabian citizen Khashoggi's criticism of the Saudi government and the subsequent murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul demonstrates the potential intersection of political power and necropolitical practices On the other hand, it has been possible to make sense of the international anger and condemnation mechanism following the murder of Khashoggi and to comment on the concepts of death, justice, and responsibility with the concept of Thanatopolitics. This study reveals the functioning of Necropolitical and thanatopolitical mechanisms and serves as an important example case in terms of the absence of the body, the problematic nature of the crime scene investigation, and the conduct of the judicial process in two different countries.
Keywords: murder, Jamal Khashoggi, forensic sciences, necropolitics, thanatopolitics.