Handshake that chills the blood
Slain journalist’s son in staged meeting with Saudi prince
IN a scene of stage-managed cynicism, Jamal Khashoggi’s son yesterday had to shake hands with the Saudi royal who has been widely blamed for his father’s brutal murder.
Salah bin Jamal Khashoggi was invited to Riyadh with other family members, and was pictured locking eyes with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 33, whose bodyguards were part of the hit squad that killed his father in Istanbul. The much publicised meeting came as Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the “savage” killing of Mr Khashoggi had been planned days in advance.
As Mr Erdogan rubbished Saudi Arabia’s claim that the journalist had died by accident in a “fist fight”:
■ Turkish investigators found possessions belonging to Mr Khashoggi in suitcases in an abandoned Saudi consulate vehicle;
■ Body parts were allegedly found in a well in the garden of the Saudi consul general’s home in Istanbul;
■ British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and his G7 counterparts condemned the killing in the ‘strongest possible terms’;
■ The prince pulled out of making a speech at the socalled “Davos in the desert” conference after the investment event was boycotted by many officials.
Video released by the state-run Saudi Press Agency yesterday showed King Salman and the crown prince shaking Salah Khashoggi’s hand. The meeting came after the Saudi royals phoned Salah, the eldest son of Mr Khashoggi, to express their condolences.
Salah, who lives in the Saudi city of Jeddah, has been unable to travel out of the kingdom for several months to visit his father, who was living in the US in exile.