DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s state television says final verdicts have been issued in the case of slain Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi after his family announced pardons that spared five from execution.

The Riyadh Criminal Court issued final verdicts Monday against eight people.

The court ordered a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for five, with one receiving a 10-year sentence and two others being ordered to serve seven years in prison.

The trial was widely criticized by rights groups and an independent U.N. investigator, who noted that no senior officials nor anyone suspected of ordering the killing was found guilty.

The independence of the court was also brought into question.

A report released by the Officer of the Director of National Intelligence Friday says Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The release of the report comes after the Trump administration largely ignored Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses in the hopes of developing trade relationships. President Joe Biden has sought to rework that relationship in recent weeks.

The report could escalate pressure on the Biden administration to hold the kingdom accountable for a murder that drew bipartisan and international outrage.

The central conclusion of the report was widely expected given that intelligence officials were said to have reached it soon after the brutal October 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s authoritarian consolidation of power.

Still, the public assignment of responsibility amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of the ambitious 35-year-old crown prince.