Washington Post’s missing journalist reportedly killed

ISTANBUL — Turkish investigators believe a prominent Saudi journalist who contributed to the Washington Post was killed in “a preplanned murder” at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, the Post reported on Saturday, citing two anonymous officials. Saudi authorities had no immediate comment, though they insisted the writer left their diplomatic post.

One Turkish official also said that detectives’ “initial assessment” was that Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the consulate.

The explosive allegations come after Khashoggi, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. for the past year, disappeared on Tuesday while on a visit to the consulate. His disappearance has threatened to upend alreadyfraught relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as raising new questions about the kingdom and the actions of its assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Khashoggi wrote about.

“If the reports of Jamal’s murder are true, it is a monstrous and unfathomable act,” the Post’s editorial page editor Fred Hiatt said in a statement.

The Post cited one anonymous official who said investigators believe a 15-member team “came from Saudi Arabia.”

A Turkish official, requesting anonymity said: “We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate.”

Khashoggi, 59, went missing while on a visit to the consulate in Istanbul for paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancée. The consulate insists the writer left its premises.