Saudi scribe murdered

Istanbul: Turkish police have concluded that prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi mission in Istanbul after going missing on Tuesday, an unnamed government official said. “Based on their initial findings, the police believe that the journalist was killed by a team especially sent to Istanbul and who left the same day,” the official said. The Saudi crown prince earlier denied that the scribe was inside the consulate.

Istanbul, Oct. 7: Turkish police believe Saudi journalist and critic Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, a government source said, but Riyadh denied the claim.

The Washington Post contributor, 59, vanished after an appointment with Saudi officials on Tuesday.

“Based on their initial findings, the police believe that the journalist was killed by a team especially sent to Istanbul and who left the same day,” the government source said on Saturday.

Police said earlier that around 15 Saudis, including officials, arrived in Istanbul on two flights on Tuesday and were at the consulate at the same time as Khashoggi. The journalist went to the building to obtain official documents but “did not come back out”, police were quoted as saying by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. Ankara announced on Saturday it had opened an official probe into his disappearance.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted an unnamed official at the Istanbul consulate as denying the reports of Khashoggi's murder.

“The official strongly denounced these baseless allegations,” the agency wrote. — AFP