‘Body double’ footage of killed journalist
● Man wearing Khashoggi’s clothes shown leaving consulate
Just hours after writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, surveillance video showed a man strolling out of the diplomatic post apparently wearing the journalist’s clothes as part of a bid to sow confusion over his fate.
The video broadcast by CNN followed reports from a progovernment Turkish newspaper that a member of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage made four calls to the senior royal’s office from the consulate around the same time.
Meanwhile, Turkish crime scene investigators are focusing their inquiries on a garage in Istanbul where a Saudi consular vehicle had been parked.
The revelations pile pressure on Saudi Arabia on the
eve of Prince Mohammed’s high-profile investment summit in Riyadh, which has seen a raft of the world’s top business
leaders decline to attend over the killing of The Washington Post writer.
Turkish president Recep
Tayyip Erdogan has promised that details of Mr Khashoggi’s killing “will be revealed in all its nakedness” in an address he will make before parliament today.
Omer Celik, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, said: “We are faced with a situation in which it was a brutally planned [killing] and efforts were made to cover it up.
“God willing, the results will be brought into the open, those responsible will be punished and no one will dare think of carrying out such a thing again.”
The kingdom’s announcement on Saturday that Mr Khashoggi died in a “fist fight”
prompted international scepticism and allegations of a cover-up to absolve the 33-yearold crown prince of direct responsibility.
Turkish media reports and officials maintain that a 15-member Saudi team flew to Istanbul on 2 October, knowing Mr Khashoggi would enter the consulate to get a document he needed to get married.
Once he was inside, the Saudis accosted Mr Khashoggi, cut off his fingers, killed and dismembered the 59-yearold writer, according to Turkish media reports.
Surveillance video on CNN showed a man in Mr Khashoggi’s dress shirt, suit jacket and trousers, although he wore a different pair of shoes.
It cited a Turkish official as describing the man as a “body double” and a member of the Saudi team sent to Istanbul to target the writer.
The man then walks out of the consulate via its back exit with an accomplice, then takes a taxi to Istanbul’s famed Blue Mosque, where he goes to a public toilet, changes back out of the clothes and later eats dinner with his accomplice.
Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday condemned the killing of Mr Khashoggi and demanded answers about his death.