Saudis ‘covering up’ evidence of murder

Members of a Saudi team which had been sent to Turkey to investigate the murder of Jamal Khashoggi instead worked to hide incriminating evidence.

Turkish officials on Tuesday alleged that senior Saudi leaders sent a chemist and a toxicologist to Istanbul to cleanse the Saudi Arabian consulate before Turkish detectives could investigate.

Khashoggi has not been since he entered the consulate last month, although Saudi Arabia later admitted he did die there. His sons have appealed for the journalist’s body to be found and returned so it can be buried in the family plot in the holy city of Medina.

If Turkish allegations are confirmed, questions will be raised over whether the Saudi leadership secretly authorised a coverup at a time it was still publicly insisting that Khashoggi had walked out of the consulate alive.

‘‘We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises,’’ said an official. Saudi Arabia has not responded to the allegation.

‘‘All what we want is to bury him,’’ his son, Salah Khashoggi, told CNN.

Turkish officials have expressed disbelief at Saudi claims that the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s body are unknown. Salah Khashoggi met King Salman and Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince, who is alleged to have ordered his father’s death.

‘‘The king has stressed that everybody involved will be brought to justice,’’ Salah Khashoggi said. ‘‘I have faith in that. This will happen.’’

Saudi Arabia has said the killing was an unauthorised ‘‘rogue’’ operation.

News of the alleged cover-up was reported in the Daily Sabah, a Turkish newspaper that identified the men as Ahmed Abdulaziz Al-Janobi, a chemist, and Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani, a toxicologist, who arrived in Istanbul on October 11, nine days after Khashoggi’s death.

Meanwhile, King Salman, of Saudi Arabia, was to embark on an unusual tour of his country yesterday as the kingdom’s international reputation continued to be battered by the fallout from the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

The 82-year-old was due to leave the capital Riyadh and visit several other provinces during the week-long trip, his first domestic tour since taking the throne in 2015.

The king’s trip appeared to be an effort to project confidence and reassure ordinary Saudis amid the most intense international criticism of Saudi Arabia since September 11. – Telegraph Group