Saudi jet evaded search by Turkish police
Turkey
The Turkish authorities alerted to the disappearance of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi rushed to Istanbul airport to search a private jet but were too late to prevent it taking off for Riyadh. It had spent barely an hour on the ground before flying out again.
Another Saudi plane that had landed earlier that day, believed to be carrying members of a hit squad, was still on the tarmac and the authorities were able to board that craft – but found nothing of note, according to Turkish media.
As diplomatic pressure mounted on Riyadh to explain Khashoggi’s disappearance, Saudi Arabia gave permission on Tuesday for Turkish police to search the consulate in Istanbul which the journalist visited before he went missing last Tuesday afternoon. It is believed that police will also search the nearby residence of Mohammed al-otaibi, the consul-general, which has also become a focus of the inquiry.
Turkish media reported that Otaibi had given staff at the residence the day off. Two of the six vans that are said to be a target of the police investigation were seen leaving the consulate that afternoon and going to Otaibi’s residence.
The Saudi authorities continue to deny all knowledge of what has become of Khashoggi, a former newspaper editor and adviser to the government who had grown critical of the policies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the past two years. They say that he visited the consulate on October 2 for an appointment to pick up papers confirming his divorce from his Saudi wife and left by a back exit.
A security camera image released by the Turkish authorities showed Khashoggi entering the building from the front. No shot of him leaving was provided, and the consulate has said its CCTV cameras were not recording.
According to the reports, two Gulfstream jets registered to a company in Riyadh arrived on the Tuesday at Istanbul airport, one at 3am, and one at 5.15pm. The Saudi men in the first plane divided into two groups and checked into two hotels before reemerging and heading for the nearby consulate.
Khashoggi had originally been to the consulate on the previous Friday but was told to return on the Tuesday afternoon. He left his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, waiting outside.
In an interview with The Washington Post, for which Khashoggi wrote a regular column, she said that he had been apprehensive before his first visit. ‘‘He said at some point, ‘Maybe it’s better if I don’t go,’’’ she said. ‘‘He was worried that something might happen.’’
He gave her the phone number of Yasin Aktay, an adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan whom he knew, and told her to call Aktay should anything happen to him.
The consulate closed at 3.30pm. When he had still not come out half an hour later she became concerned.
‘‘That’s when I began to ask, ‘Where did Jamal go?’ ’’ She said that a man came to the entrance and told her there was no-one inside, so she called Aktay, triggering the police investigation. She said that Khashoggi had recently bought an apartment in Istanbul in anticipation of their marriage. ‘‘I am not giving up hope,’’ she said. ‘‘I still have hope that he is alive.’’
The reports say that six vans were driven from the consulate to the consul-general’s residence, where they stayed for four hours. The 15 men at some point returned to the jets at the airport, which flight records show returned to Riyadh.
The Turkish video also allegedly shows the men loading boxes or bags on to the vans, leading to the suspicion that Khashoggi had been dismembered after being killed. However, the news agency AFP has reported that the police did not believe Khashoggi’s remains, if that was what they were, were in bags taken through the airport.
The Turkish account of events, often confusing, has been revealed only through police and intelligence leaks. –