Saudis: New Evidence Suggests Khashoggi Killing Was ‘Premeditated’

Officials back away from previous versions of the story

Jason Ditz 

Posted onOctober 25, 2018CategoriesNewsTagsSaudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s prosecutor has issued a statement Thursday once again revising the kingdom’s official account of their killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.Citing “new evidence,” he says they now believe the killing was premeditated.

This fact should come as no surprise, as a 15-man kill team was dispatched to the consulate specifically to meet Khashoggi. That the Saudis revised their story again, however, is noteworthy, as after a flurry of different versions over the weekend, they’d sort of let the story sit.

Indications are that this is the result of Turkish officials having shared more of their own intelligence on the murder with the Saudis. Since Turkey has also been giving that information to the US, it wouldn’t make much sense for the Saudis to make claims contradicting what Turkey has already found out.

Of course, since the Saudis killing Khashoggi, the simplest way to avoid having to keep changing their official story would’ve been to tell the truth in the first place. The problem is that officials are desperate to keep the crown prince from being blamed in any direct way for it, which means they have to keep dancing around the underpinnings of the plot.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/10/25/saudis-new-evidence-suggests-khashoggi-killing-was-premeditated/