‘Tortured, killed and chopped into pieces’
Leading critic of Saudi Arabia ‘brutally murdered’ in country’s Istanbul consulate as fiancee waited outside for him for 11 hours
A PROMINENT critic of the Saudi government was tortured, murdered and ‘cut into pieces’ inside one of its consulates, police say.
Jamal Khashoggi went with his fiancee to Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork, but she never saw him again.
The high-profile journalist was killed by a 15-member Saudi team sent ‘specifically for the murder’ – and they even filmed the killing, it is believed
The 59-year- old was made to ‘faint’ and was then dismembered, a friend said.
‘Everything was videotaped to prove the mission had been accomplished and the tape was taken out of the country,’ a Turkish police source said.
His Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz was waiting outside, but did not see him leave. She said he was ‘stressed and sad’ that he had to go to the consulate last Tuesday.
They had also discussed whether it was safe to go there.
Mr Khashoggi was told to leave his mobile phone outside and Miss Cengiz said: ‘Before going in, he handed over his phone to me and asked me to call one of Erdogan’s [Turkey’s president] advisers if he doesn’t return.’ She waited for him outside the consulate from about 1pm until after midnight and did not see him.
Miss Cengiz returned when the consulate reopened on Wednesday morning. He has not been heard from since.
Mr Khashoggi had lived in self-imposed exile in Washington for the last year, fearing retribution for his critical views on Saudi Arabia’s policies.
He went to the consulate thinking he was going to receive a document certifying he had divorced his ex-wife, so that he could marry Miss Cengiz, 36.
Turan Kislakci, a friend of Mr Khashoggi, said yesterday that Saudi officials told him to ‘make your funeral preparations’ and that he was killed in a ‘ barbaric way’. They said he ‘was made to faint and was then dismembered’. Speaking outside the Saudi consulate, Mr Kislakci said: ‘What was explained to us is this: ‘‘He was killed, make your funeral preparations”.
‘We called a few other places, these were lower officials, but they said: “We have evidence he was killed in a barbaric way, we will announce it tomorrow or the day after”,’ he added.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Mr Khashoggi a ‘journalist and a friend’. He said he was personally following the case and would announce the results of the investigation at an undisclosed time.
A Turkish official said: ‘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.’
If confirmed, the apparently state-sponsored killing on Turkish soil will worsen already strained relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. A delegation of 15 Saudis arrived in Turkey the day Mr Khashoggi disappeared and they flew into Istanbul on two private flights.
They were in the consulate at the same time as the journalist and left the same day.
Their diplomatic bags could not be opened but Turkish intelligence are sure Mr Khashoggi’s remains were not in them. It is not clear if the Saudi delegation consisted of security or diplomatic staff. Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Mr Erdogan, said: ‘Khashoggi discussed to go there or not with his fiancee beforehand. Our security officials are investigating the issue in every detail.
‘We have some concrete information, it won’t be an unresolved crime. We could determine his entrance but not any exit. That’s confirmed. We asked them [the Saudis], they say he left, but there is no such thing on the camera footage.
‘That’s underestimating Turkey. They are wrong if they think Turkey is as it was in the 1990s. The consulate should make a clear statement.’
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman said his staff will allow Turkey to search the consulate in Istanbul.
‘He’s a Saudi citizen and we are very keen to know what happened to him,’ he said. ‘And we will continue our dialogue with the Turkish government to see what happened to Jamal there.’
A Saudi source at the consulate denied that Mr Khashoggi had been killed there and said the accusations were ‘baseless’.
‘Make your funeral preparations’