Images surface of journo’s ‘ murderers’
Media reports ‘ an assassination squad’ entering Turkey on October 2
Turkish media published images on Wednesday of an alleged 15- member Saudi “assassination squad” and video of suspicious movements at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul following journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance a week ago, putting new pressure on the kingdom amid growing international concern for the writer.
Saudi Arabia remained silent as the images, though not offering definitive proof about Mr Khashoggi’s fate, played across television networks in Turkey and around the world. Turkish officials fear the team killed Mr Khashoggi, who wrote critically of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The kingdom dismisses the allegation as “baseless.”
However, Saudi Arabia has offered no evidence to support its contention that the writer left the consulate unharmed and vanished into Istanbul while his fiancee waited impatiently outside. Politicians in the United States, Riyadh’s main ally, have warned that any harm done to the Washington
Post contributor will jeopardise America’s relations with the world’s largest oil exporter. State- run broadcaster TRT aired video purportedly showing the Saudis arriving by private jet and then leaving a hotel. The footage shows Mr Khashoggi entering the consulate on October 2. An hour and 54 minutes later, according to the time stamp, a black Mercedes Vito with diplomatic license plates, which resembled a van parked outside of the consulate when the writer walked in, drives some 2 kilometers ( 1.2 miles) to the consul’s home, where it parks inside a garage.
The footage all seemed to come from surveillance cameras, which would have been posted throughout the district housing the Saudi consulate and other diplomatic missions. No one has produced any such footage of Mr Khashoggi leaving the consulate.
Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper and other media alleged on Wednesday that the Saudi Consulate’s 28 local staff were given leave on October 2 on grounds that a “diplomats’ meeting” would be held there on that day. The reports did not cite a source and there was no official confirmation of the claim.
The Sabah newspaper, which is close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published images of what it referred to as the “assassination squad” apparently taken at passport control. It said they checked into two hotels in Istanbul on October 2 and left later that day. Turkey’s private NTV news channel identified one member of the alleged 15- member team as the head of a Saudi forensic science agency. It alleged he may have been responsible for cleaning up any incriminating evidence. The station did not cite a source for its report.
Mr Khashoggi had written a series of columns for the Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Arabia’s assertive Prince Mohammed, who has led a widely publicised drive to reform the conservative Sunni monarchy.