Turkey claims it has proof Saudi writer was killed

ANKARA, TURKEY — Turkey’s government has told U.S. officials it has audio and video proof that missing Saudi Arabian writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Washington Post reported Friday.

The newspaper, for which Khashoggi is a columnist, cited anonymous officials as saying the recordings show a Saudi security team detained the writer when he went to the consulate on Oct. 2 to pick up a document for his upcoming wedding.

The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm the report and Turkish officials would not comment.

Meanwhile, a delegation from Saudi Arabia arrived in Turkey Friday as part of an investigation into the writer’s disappearance, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Saudi Arabia has called the allegation it abducted or harmed Khashoggi “baseless.” However, it has offered no evidence to support its claim he left the consulate and vanished, despite his fiancée waiting outside.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said the delegation would hold talks with Turkish officials over the weekend. It did not provide further details.

On Thursday, Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey and Saudi Arabia would form a “joint working group” to look into Khashoggi’s disappearance.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Saudi Arabia welcomed Turkey’s approval of the joint working group. The Saudi statement said the kingdom is keen “to sustain the security and safety of its citizenry, wherever they might happen to be.”

Amid growing concern over Khashoggi’s fate, French President Emmanuel Macron said his country wanted to know “the whole truth” about the writer’s disappearance, calling the early details about the case “very worrying.”

Macron said “I’m waiting for the truth and complete clarity to be made” since the matter is “very serious.”