Video may show suspect in Khashoggi’s clothing
Surveillance ISTANBUL — video recorded by Turkish law enforcement appears to confirm reports that Saudi agents accused of carrying out the killing of Jamal Khashoggi used a body double as part of an attempted coverup.
The video — obtained and broadcast by CNN on Monday — purportedly shows a Saudi agent walking out of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul wearing Khashoggi’s clothes, as well as spectacles and a fake beard, in an attempt to disguise himself as the slain Saudi journalist.
For weeks, the Saudi government had denied that it killed Khashoggi and said he walked out of the consulate after his Oct. 2 visit. The body double appeared to be an attempt to substantiate that denial, but the cover story fell apart, according to a diplomat familiar with the deliberations, because the video footage clearly reveals the body double’s flaws, mainly that he is wearing different shoes than Khashoggi wore when he entered the consulate.
“It was a flawed body double, so it never became an official part of the Saudi government’s narrative,” said the diplomat.
Turkish investigators allege 15 Saudi agents murdered Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist who was living in exile in the U.S., inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul soon after he entered it nearly three weeks ago.
Saudi Arabia claimed Saturday that Khashoggi, 59, accidentally died in the consulate following an altercation with a team that was sent to negotiate his return. But Saudi officials have so far refused to answer questions about what happened to Khashoggi’s remains, fueling already widespread condemnation of the killing.
The footage aired Monday — which appeared to show Mustafa al-Madani, 57, and an accomplice — further challenges the Saudi government’s explanations of what transpired in the consulate and in the hours after Khashoggi’s death.
In a series of clips from closed-circuit TV cameras, Madani is shown wearing the gray pants, light shirt and black jacket worn by Khashoggi before he entered the mission. He also appears to be wearing spectacles and a fake beard as part of the disguise.
According to records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, Madani, who is suspected of working for Saudi intelligence, traveled to New York shortly before Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was scheduled to arrive there as part of his U.S. tour this spring. Four users of a caller-ID app popular in the Arab world list Madani as working in intelligence, and another describes him as working in the headquarters of the kingdom’s primary intelligence agency.
In the video, Madani arrives at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul’s Levent district at around 11 a.m., wearing black and white sneakers and a blue plaid shirt, roughly two hours before the arrival of Khashoggi. Khashoggi went to the consulate that day on an administrative errand, after consular employees told him that paperwork he needed for his marriage would be ready on Oct. 2, according to his family and friends.
Madani is shown departing the consulate about four hours later wearing Khashoggi’s clothing — except for his shoes. He is accompanied by another man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and carrying a white plastic bag. The two suspects take a taxi to Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmet district, where they enter a bathroom, the images show. Madani emerges from the bathroom wearing the same plaid shirt he wore when he arrived at the consulate, and the two men dispose of the plastic bag, which Turkish officials believe contained Khashoggi’s clothes, CNN reported.