Turkish police suspect Saudi journalist Khashoggi was killed at consulate: Reports
Turkish official says he believes killing of journalist premeditated, body removed from Saudi consulate
Protester holds picture of Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi consulate on Friday (AFP)
Turkish authorities suspect that missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared four days ago after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, was killed inside the consulate, two Turkish sources told Reuters on Saturday.
"The initial assessment of the Turkish police is that Mr Khashoggi has been killed at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate," one of the sources, a Turkish official, said.
A senior Turkish police source told MEE that Khashoggi had been "brutally tortured, killed and cut into pieces. Everything was videotaped to prove the mission had been accomplished and the tape was taken out of the country".
Khashoggi's disappearance is likely to further deepen divisions between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, Reuters said. Relations were already strained after Turkey sent troops to the Gulf state of Qatar last year in a show of support after its Gulf neighbours, including Saudi Arabia, imposed an embargo on Doha.
“He said the consulate was equipped with cameras but they did not record footage, so no images could be retrieved of Khashoggi entering or leaving the consulate.” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-politics-dissident-consulate/saudi-arabia-opens-up-consulate-after-journalist-vanishes-idUSKCN1MG0RC …
Police said about 15 Saudis, including officials, came to Istanbul on two private flights on Tuesday and were at the consulate at the same time as the journalist. They left again the same day, according to AFP.
Their diplomatic bags could not be opened, a security ource told MEE, but Turkish intelligence was sure that Khashoggi's remains were not in them.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg in an interview earlier this week that Turkish authorities could search their consulate, as they had “nothing to hide”. He added that Khashoggi had left the building not long after he entered.
Some Reuters journalists toured the facility on Saturday, but Turkish authorities had not entered it.
Another police source told MEE on Saturday: “The consulate is surrounded by cameras, no evidence of Khashoggi leaving was recorded on them."
"The killing, if confirmed, would mark a stunning escalation of Saudi Arabia's effort to silence dissent," the Washington Post said.
This is absolutely devastating. Jamal was a good friend to many of my friends. An amazing man and brilliant journalist for the @WashingtonPost. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkey-concludes-saudi-journalist-khashoggi-killed-by-murder-team-sources-say/2018/10/06/31ee4f86-c8d9-11e8-9c0f-2ffaf6d422aa_story.html …
The Post, for whom Khashoggi wote columns, left a blank slate on its Opinion page to draw attention to his disappearance.
"We are holding a spot for Jamal Khashoggi in Friday's newspaper," the Post said in a tweet, which included a photo of the exceptional, empty spot at the centre of the page.
“If the reports of Jamal’s murder are true, it is a monstrous and unfathomable act,” Fred Hiatt, director of the Post’s editorial page, said in a statement. “Jamal was - or, as we hope, is - a committed, courageous journalist. He writes out of a sense of love for his country and deep faith in human dignity and freedom. He is respected in his country, in the Middle East and throughout the world. We have been enormously proud to publish his writings.”
The Post also cited a senior US official government official as saying that Washington is not aware of Khashoggi's whereabouts and cannot confirm the reports about his murder.
An official at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul dismissed the reports early on Sunday, casting doubt on the credibility of the Turkish sources who had confirmed the journalist's death, according to the Saudi newspaper Okaz.
Still, Bruce Reidel, former CIA analyst and director of the Brookings Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institute, said: "I’m not surprised. The crown prince does not tolerate criticism. And he knows Trump won’t care. Perhaps some of MBS’s naive boosters in the West will finally see he is no revolutionary or reformer, but the president has his back."
Khashoggi disappeared after visiting his country’s consulate on Tuesday, his fiancee told Middle East Eye.
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“He entered at 1pm and hasn’t surfaced since then. I have no media statements to make at this point, but I have contacted Turkish authorities for help,” Khashoggi’s fiancee, who did not want to be identified by name, told MEE by phone.
According to the fiancee, Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week, but was asked to return on Tuesday to complete an application related to family matters.
According to a friend of Khashoggi who spoke to MEE on condition of anonymity, the journalist’s Saudi wife divorced him after his fallout with the Saudi authorities. He was visiting the Istanbul consulate to obtain proof of his divorce required by Turkish authorities to marry his fiancee.
Khashoggi is a former editor-in-chief of Saudi newspapers al-Arab and Watan. He previously served as the media adviser to Prince Turki al-Faisal during his tenure as ambassador in London and Washington.
The seasoned journalist studied at Indiana State University and has been based in Washington DC since he fled Saudi Arabia in 2017 over fears of the new government’s crackdown on critical voices.
Khashoggi is considered a Saudi nationalist, and before leaving Saudi Arabia in September 2017, he was seen as close to the royal court.
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Still, friction between him and the kingdom’s rulers began to emerge after comments at the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy, warning that Saudi Arabia should be “rightfully nervous about a Trump presidency”.
Authorities informed him that he was banned from writing and tweeting soon after. Worried by the actions, Khashoggi decided to leave the country.
Since then, he has primarily been living in the US capital, writing for the Washington Post. His columns include criticism of Saudi Arabia’s policies towards Qatar and Canada, the war in Yemen, and a crackdown on the media and activists.
"I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice," he wrote in September 2017. "To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot."
Khashoggi's fiance tweeted in Arabic late on Saturday: "Jamal was not killed, and I don't believe that he was killed."
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkish-police-suspect-saudi-journalist-khashoggi-was-killed-consulate-report-1250529206
posted by Satish Sharma at
11:52
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