Turkish paper accuses Saudi official over Khashoggi

ISTANBUL: A pro-government newspaper yesterday pointed a finger at a Saudi security official close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Turkish press reports — which commentators suspect are based on deliberate government leaks — have suggested that Khashoggi was killed by a 15-person “assassination team” who flew in on two chartered planes and then interrogated, tortured and killed him.

The pro-government Sabah newspaper yesterday said Saudi security official Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb was the leader of the alleged team. He has been previously photographed close to the crown prince.

“Here is the head of the execution team,” said Sabah’s headline, and the paper then detailed Mutreb’s movements on the day Khashoggi went missing.

Giving precise times based on CCTV footage, the newspaper reported that Mutreb went into the consulate more than three hours before Khashoggi entered the building.

In a series of CCTV images, Mutreb was then seen outside the consul’s residence, then later at his hotel near the Saudi mission with a “large suitcase”, and finally at the airport in the early evening.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper on Wednesday claimed it had heard audio tapes in which Khashoggi’s alleged killers tortured him by cutting his fingers off before his decapitation.