Saudis covered up crime: Turkey
Evidence of Khashoggi’s killing
ISTANBUL • More than a week after Saudi agents killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Saudi Arabia sent an expert team to clean up evidence of the crime, under the guise of helping with the investigation, a senior Turkish official said Monday — the latest twist in a case that has caused an international uproar.
A pro-government newspaper Sabah published news of the Saudi cleanup team and photographs of two of its members, whom it identified as a chemist and a toxicologist, who visited the Saudi consulate where Khashoggi was killed.
The senior Turkish official confirmed the main details of the report and said the Saudi team was sent with the knowledge of top Saudi officials.
The two men travelled to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of the killing before Turkish police were allowed to search the premises, the official said in comments relayed by electronic message.
The two men were identified as Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Jonabi, a chemist, and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani, a toxicologist, part of a team of Saudi investigators who spent several days in Turkey visiting the consulate and the consul’s residence, ostensibly to help with the investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance, the newspaper reported.
The Turkish official confirmed the names of the two individuals and said that they were part of a cleanup team.
Saudi Arabia has detained 18 people implicated in the killing of Khashoggi, but has not said who ordered what Turkish officials have characterized as the political assassination of a prominent critic of the Saudi government. Turkish and Western officials have said it is unlikely that such a plan would have been carried out without the approval of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is seen as the country’s de facto ruler and has been consolidating his grip on power since last year.
Salah Khashoggi met King Salman and the crown prince about the death of his father.
“The King has stressed that everybody involved will be brought to justice,” Khashoggi said. “I have faith in that. This will happen.”
Speaking on Monday in Geneva, the president of Saudi Arabia’s human rights commission, Bandar al-Aiban, vowed a full investigation and punishment of those responsible, but shed no new light on the case.
Turkey has demanded, to no avail, that Saudi Arabia disclose what became of Khashoggi’s body, that it name the “local collaborator” who a Saudi official has said helped dispose of the remains and that it turn over the 18 suspects to face the Turkish justice system.