China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Saudi king, prince offer sympathies to writer’s son
that Khashoggi was killed in a “fistfight” and 18 Saudis have been detained has been met with international skepticism and allegations of a cover-up designed to absolve the royal family of direct responsibility. Turkish media reports and officials said a 15-member Saudi team flew to Istanbul, laid in wait for Khashoggi at the consulate and then cut off his fingers, killed and dismembered the 59-year-old writer.
“Why did these 15 people come here? Why were 18 people arrested? All of this needs to be explained in all its details,” Erdogan said.
The Saudi Press Agency announced the calls to Khashoggi’s son, Salah, on Monday morning. Statements from the agency said both King Salman and Prince Mohammed expressed their condolences over his father’s death.
Istanbul’s chief prosecutor summoned 28 more staff members of the Saudi Consulate, including Turkish citizens and foreign nationals, to give testimony on Monday, Turkish state broadcaster TRT reported. Prosecutors have previously questioned consulate staff; some Turkish employees reportedly said they were instructed not to go to work around the time that Khashoggi disappeared.
Turkish news agency Anadolu Agency reported on Sunday that Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, has been given 24-hour police protection.
Also on Sunday, images that were obtained by TRT World, a Turkish news channel that broadcasts in English, showed Khashoggi as he arrived at a police barrier before entering the consulate on Oct 2. The images, taken from security camera video, show the writer being searched before continuing toward the building.
‘Tremendous mistake’
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Fox News that Khashoggi’s killing was “a rogue operation” and that “we don’t know where the body is”.
“The individuals who did this did this outside the scope of their authority,” he said. “There obviously was a tremendous mistake made and what compounded the mistake was the attempt to try to cover up. That is unacceptable to the government.”
However, a leading US Senate Republican said the Saudi explanation, which followed initial denials from the kingdom that it knew anything about Khashoggi’s fate, wasn’t credible.
“The Turks have been talking more to the media than they have (to) us,” Corker said of the NATO ally.
California Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the US House intelligence committee, said on ABC’s This Week that the killing should be a “relationshipaltering” event for the United States and Saudi Arabia, which has said it will retaliate against any economic sanctions or other moves against it.
“We ought to suspend military sales, we ought to suspend certain security assistance and we ought to impose sanctions on any of those that were directly involved in this murder,” Schiff said.
US President Donald Trump had also talked about possible punishment but said he didn’t want to halt a proposed $110 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia because, he maintained, it would harm US manufacturers.
The United Kingdom, Germany and France issued a joint statement condemning the killing of Khashoggi, saying there is an “urgent need for clarification of exactly what happened”. AP and AFP contributed to this story.