Prince denounces critic’s murder
Khashoggi’s death a ‘heinous crime’, says Saudi royal
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince denounced the murder of critic Jamal Khashoggi as a “heinous crime”, insisting the kingdom was cooperating with Turkish authorities and “justice will prevail”.
“The crime was very painful to all Saudis. And it is painful, heinous to every human being in the world,” Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in his first comments since the murder of the journalist.
“Those behind this crime will be held accountable ... in the end justice will prevail,”he said at the Future Investment Initiative Forum in Riyadh yesterday.
Saudi leaders have denied involvement in Khashoggi’s murder inside Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate on Oct 2, pushing responsibility down the chain of command.
But the kingdom is under mounting international pressure over the killing amid US accusations of a monumental cover-up by the kingdom.
Prince Mohammed said Saudi Arabia was working with the Turkish authorities to investigate the case.
“Many are trying to exploit the Khashoggi affair to drive a wedge between Saudi Arabia and Turkey,” he said.
“But they will not succeed as long as there is a king named Salman and a crown prince named Mohammed bin Salman.”
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prince Mohammed yesterday discussed steps to “shed light” on the murder of journalist Khashoggi, in their first telephone conversation since the killing, a presidential source said.
Erdogan has so far spoken twice on the phone with Saudi King Salman. But yesterday’s telephone conversation was the first time he has spoken to the crown prince who is seen as the driving force in dayto-day rule of the kingdom.
The two discussed “the issue of joint efforts and the steps that need to be taken in order to shed light on the Khashoggi murder in all its aspects,” the source added.
The phone call was at the request of the prince, the presidential source noted.
Erdogan also kept up pressure on Saudi Arabia as the kingdom’s powerful crown prince addressed the summit in Riyadh
“We are determined not to allow the murder to be covered up and for those responsible – from the person who gave the order to those who executed it – not to escape justice,” he said in the capital, Ankara.
Erdogan has said that 15 Saudi officials arrived in Istanbul shortly before Khashoggi’s death and that a man, apparently dressed in the writer’s clothes, acted as a possible decoy by walking out of the consulate on the day of the disappearance.
Turkish officials say the 15 men comprised a Saudi hit squad that included a member of Prince Mohammed’s entourage on overseas trips.
Saudi Arabia has suggested, without offering evidence, that the team went rogue.
However, no major decision in the kingdom is made without the approval of the crown prince or King Salman.
Economists say Saudi Arabia will need trillions of dollars in investments to create millions of new jobs for young Saudis entering the workforce in coming years.
The investment forum is aimed at attracting investors to help underwrite that effort.
In the wake of Khashoggi’s killing, many international business leaders and Western officials have pulled out of the forum.
The event’s first day saw several speakers acknowledge the killing of the Saudi writer whose columns criticised the crown prince’s crackdown on dissent.
Dozens of Saudi activists, writers, clerics and even women who were behind calls for the right to drive have been detained.
At one summit session, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih described Khashoggi’s slaying as “abhorrent”.
Still, the event proved it could draw investments with some US$55bil (RM228bil) in agreements pledged, much of that focused on Saudi Arabia’s lucrative energy industry.
There was a strong showing from Russian, Asian and African nations at the forum.
In the US, pressure continued to mount against Saudi Arabia’s account of Khashoggi’s killing.
“The cover-up was horrible. The execution was horrible,” President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday night.
“But there should have never been an execution or a cover-up because it should have never happened.”
Trump later was asked about Prince Mohammed in an Oval Office interview with The Wall Street Journal.
“Well, the prince is running things over there more so at this stage. He’s running things and so if anybody were going to be, it would be him,” Trump told the newspaper.
Shortly after Trump’s remarks, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the United States was revoking the visas of some Saudi officials implicated in Khashoggi’s death.