Saudi claims journalist died in fistfight
SAUDI ARABIA confirmed last night that missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in its Istanbul consulate, according to state media.
“The discussions between Jamal Khashoggi and those he met at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul... devolved into a fistfight, leading to his death,” the Saudi Press Agency said, citing the public prosecutor.
The Saudi government has been under days of intense pressure to explain what happened to the dissident journalist after he entered the consulate more than two weeks ago.
Turkish government sources have alleged the ‘Washington Post’ columnist was tortured, murdered and his body dismembered by a Saudi hit squad flown in from Riyadh.
However, reports circulated for days that the kingdom was preparing to suggest it was an interrogation or rendition effort that spiralled out of control – an explanation that would insulate Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince, from responsibility for the journalist’s death.
Last night, it announced the sacking of a senior intelligence official as it declared the results of its internal investigation.
“Ahmad al-Assiri, vice president of general intelligence, has been sacked from his position,” state media reported, citing a royal decree.
It added that senior royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani had also been dismissed.
The moves suggest an effort to limit damage the diplomatic fall-out.
The alleged killing has sent shockwaves through the world, dwarfing outrage over the kingdom’s recent arrest of women’s rights activists and its involvement in the deaths of civilians in the war in Yemen.
In the last few days, foreign diplomats have suspended scheduled visits to the kingdom and more than two dozen top officials and executives from the US and Europe have cancelled plans to attend the Future Investment Initiative, the “Davos of the Desert”.
Yesterday, before the Saudi announcment, Turkish police were searching a forest on the outskirts of Istanbul and a city near the Sea of Marmara for the remains of Mr Khashoggi.
Investigators have also taken “many samples” from searches of the consulate and the consul’s residence, two senior officials said, in order to ana-
His death has caused global shock waves
lyse those for traces of Mr Khashoggi’s DNA.
Authorities had widened the geographic focus of the search after tracking the routes of cars that left the Saudi consulate and residence on October 2, the day Mr Khashoggi was last seen, the officials said.
They added that his killers may have dumped his remains in Belgrad Forest, near Istanbul, and at a rural location near the city of Yalova, 90km south of Istanbul. “The investigations led to some suspicion that his remains may be in the city of Yalova and the forest. Police have been searching these areas,” one official said. A “farm house or villa” may have been used for the disposal of remains, the official added.
Mr Khashoggi went to the consulate seeking documents for his planned marriage and has not been seen since.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he presumed Mr Khashoggi was dead and that the US response to Saudi Arabia would likely be “very severe” but that he still wanted to get to the bottom of what exactly happened. (© Daily Telegraph London)