Turks call for forensic tests at Saudi embassy
TURKEY has demanded that Saudi Arabia allow police to search the Istanbul consulate where a prominent Saudi journalist disappeared last week, a Turkish official said yesterday.
Yasin Aktay, an adviser to the Turkish president, said Saudi Arabia had not yet agreed to let investigators search the facility as part of their investigation into the fate of Jamal Khashoggi.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, challenged Saudi officials to prove their claim that Mr Khashoggi had left the consulate.
“Consulate officials cannot save themselves by saying that he left the building,” Mr Erdogan said. “If he left, you have to prove it with footage.”
Mr Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who criticised the Saudi government, has not been seen since last Tuesday, when he entered the consulate to file paperwork.
Officials have said privately they believe Mr Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered inside the consulate but Turkey’s government has not publicly made the explosive accusation.
Saudi Arabia has insisted that Mr Khashoggi left the consulate on Tuesday and that the Saudi government had nothing to do with his disappearance.
“The Turkish authorities have demanded to be allowed to search inside the consulate but they are still waiting for a response from the Saudi side,” Mr Aktay told The Daily Telegraph. Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, said last week that his country had “nothing to hide” and would not object to a search of the consulate.
The Saudi consul-general allowed journalists into the consulate but police have yet to search the facility for forensic evidence.
Mr Aktay said he did not know whether Mr Khashoggi had been murdered. He said: “I can confirm he entered the consulate and he didn’t come out. Everything is possible: either he was killed, or he was extracted from the consulate, or something else.”