Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Saudi writer investigation
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s public prosecutor said Wednesday that Jamal Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered upon arrival at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 as part of a premeditated plan to kill the prominent Saudi journalist and dispose of his body.
The statement, delivered as Saudi Arabia’s own prosecutor left Istanbul for Riyadh, marked the most conclusive official description to date of what happened to the prominent journalist and Washington Post contributing columnist when he entered the diplomatic mission in early October.
It also intensified pressure on Saudi Arabia to find its way out of a crisis that has elicited sharp criticism from Western allies and put the spotlight on the kingdom’s close relationship with President Donald Trump’s administration.
Irfan Fidan, the Turkish prosecutor, said Khashoggi was “strangled as soon as he entered the consulate” in line with “premeditated plans.”
Khashoggi’s body, “after being strangled, was subsequently destroyed by being dismembered, once again confirming the planning of the murder,” Fidan said.
The Turkish statement used the word “bogulmak,” which can also mean suffocation.
Turkish media outlets reported that Saud al-Mojeb, Saudi Arabia’s top prosecutor, had left for the airport in Istanbul after two days of meetings with his Turkish counterpart and representatives of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization. A senior Turkish official said Mojeb did not give Fidan the location of Khashoggi’s body or the identity of a “local collaborator” who Saudi authorities have asserted helped dispose of the journalist’s remains.
Since the prosecutor arrived Monday in Turkey, “Saudi officials seemed primarily interested in finding out what evidence the Turkish authorities had against the perpetrators” in Khashoggi’s killing, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private law enforcement contacts.
“We did not get the impression that they were keen on genuinely cooperating with the investigation,” the official said of the Saudi delegation.
Mojeb’s visit came just days after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hailed the “unique” cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the investigation into the killing of Khashoggi.
Turkey says members of a 15-man hit team dispatched from Saudi Arabia killed Khashoggi inside the consulate. Turkish investigators have not publicly released a key piece of evidence in the case — a purported audio recording of what occurred inside.
Saudi Arabia has provided shifting explanations about what happened to Khashoggi, who had written opinion columns criticizing the prince. Saudi authorities have acknowledged that Khashoggi was killed in the consulate but blamed the slaying on agents acting outside the state’s authority.
On Wednesday, a Saudi official said the kingdom had not officially concluded that Khashoggi’s death was premeditated.
“The public prosecutor has acknowledged seeing that information from the Turkish side. We have not said if that is true or not true. We are waiting for the results of the investigation,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to talk to the press.
Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have repeatedly complained that Saudi Arabia is hampering the investigation by refusing to provide critical pieces of information, including the location of Khashoggi’s body. Turkey has also requested the extradition of 18 suspects who the Saudi government says have been arrested in the case.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the suspects will be tried in domestic courts.
The killing has unleashed a storm of criticism, causing Germany to suspend export licenses to the kingdom and placing Trump in a quandary. In addition to being a major purchaser of American weapons, Saudi Arabia sits at the heart of the administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East.
Trump has said he is “not satisfied” with the Saudi explanations of Khashoggi’s death. Defense Secretary James Mattis has warned that the crisis could affect regional stability.
But there are few indications that Khashoggi’s death will fundamentally alter the relationship between the two nations.
On Wednesday, a group of Republican senators called on Trump to suspend negotiations for a U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear agreement. They cited the fallout from Khashoggi’s death, as well as Riyadh’s policies toward Lebanon and Yemen, as cause for “serious concerns about the transparency, accountability and judgment of current decision-makers.”