Saudi journalist Khashoggi was killed in consulate, says Turkey
Ankara, October 7
Turkish authorities believe Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul last week, Turkish sources said, in what they described as the deliberate targeting of a prominent critic of the Gulf kingdom’s rulers.
Khashoggi, a former newspaper editor in Saudi Arabia and adviser to its former head of intelligence, left the country last year saying he feared retribution for his growing criticism of Saudi policy in the Yemen war and its crackdown on dissent.
On Tuesday he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get documents for his forthcoming marriage. Saudi officials say he left shortly afterwards but his fiancee, who was waiting outside, said he never came out.
“The initial assessment of the Turkish police is that 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 two Turkish officials said on Saturday.
An adviser to Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan, Yasin Aktay, said authorities had concrete information about Khashoggi’s case, and he believed the journalist was killed in the consulate.
A Saudi source at the consulate denied that Khashoggi had been killed at the mission and said in a statement that the accusations were baseless.
The Saudi source said that a security team including Saudi investigators had arrived in Istanbul on Saturday to take part in the investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance.
The US is seeking more information, a State Department official said.
Khashoggi’s fiancee could not immediately be contacted but she said in a Tweet that there had been no official confirmation of the Turkish sources’ statements. — Reuters
He was critic of Saudi policy in Yemen war
- Jamal Khashoggi is a familiar face on political talk shows on Arab satellite television networks and used to advise Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to the United States and Britain.
- Over the past year, he has written columns for newspapers, including the Washington Post, criticising Saudi policies towards Qatar and Canada, the war in Yemen and a crackdown on dissent which has seen dozens of people detained
