Turkey points the finger at Saudis
• Insiders link a visit by group of 15 to journalist’s death in consulate
Turkish authorities say they believe that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul last week, Turkish sources said, in what they described as the deliberate targeting of a prominent critic of the Gulf kingdom’s rulers.
Khashoggi, a former newspaper editor in Saudi Arabia and adviser to its former head of intelligence, left the country last year saying he feared retribution for his criticism of Saudi policy in the Yemen war and its crackdown on dissent.
He entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday to get documents for his forthcoming marriage. Saudi officials say he left shortly afterwards, but his fiancee, who was waiting outside, said he never came out.
“The initial assessment of the Turkish police is that Mr Khashoggi has been killed at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate,” one of two Turkish officials said.
An adviser to Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan, Yasin Aktay, said authorities had concrete information about Khashoggi’s case, and he believed the journalist was killed in the consulate.
A Saudi source at the consulate denied that Khashoggi had been killed at the mission and said that the accusations were baseless. The source said that a security team including Saudi investigators arrived in Istanbul on Saturday to take part in the investigation into Khashoggi’s disappearance.
The US is seeking more information, a state department official said. “We are not in a position to confirm these reports, but we are following them closely,” the official said.
Khashoggi’s fiancee could not immediately be contacted but she said in a tweet there had been no official confirmation of the Turkish sources’ statements. “Jamal was not killed and I do not believe he was killed,” Hatice Cengiz posted.
Another Turkish security source told Reuters that a group of 15 Saudi nationals, including officials, arrived in Istanbul in two planes and entered the consulate on the day Khashoggi was there, and later left the country.
The source said Turkish officials were trying to identify them. Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported the Saudi group was briefly at the consulate.
Khashoggi is a familiar face on political talk shows on Arab satellite television networks and used to advise Prince Turki alFaisal, former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to the US and Britain. Over the past year, he has written columns for newspapers including the Washington Post, criticising Saudi policies on Qatar and Canada, the war in Yemen and a crackdown on dissent.
“I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice,” he wrote in September. “To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot.”
Two months later, writing about the detentions of scores of Saudi royals, senior officials and business people accused of corruption, he said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman dispensed “selective justice” and said there was “complete intolerance for even mild criticism” of the crown prince.
Khashoggi’s disappearance is likely to further deepen divisions between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Relations were already strained after Turkey sent troops to the Gulf state of Qatar last year in a show of support after its Gulf neighbours, including Saudi Arabia, imposed an embargo on Doha.
Erdogan also supported a government in Egypt led by the Muslim Brotherhood, which Saudi Arabia has designated a terrorist movement.
Aktay, who is also a friend of Khashoggi, told Reuters that Turkish authorities believed the group of 15 Saudi nationals were “most certainly involved” in his disappearance.
“My sense is that he has been killed ... The Saudis are saying we can come investigate, but they have of course disposed of the body,” he said.
He believed that Saudi statements about a lack of footage from security cameras were insincere. Saudi consul-general Mohammad al-Otaibi said on Saturday that the consulate’s security cameras showed only a live stream and did not record footage, so they could not provide evidence of Khashoggi’s movements.