Suspect linked to Saudi prince
ISTANBUL — A member of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage during several trips abroad walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there, a surveillance photo leaked Thursday shows, drawing the kingdom’s heir-apparent closer to the columnist’s alleged slaying.
The man, identified by Turkish officials as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, has been photographed in the background of Prince Mohammed’s trips to the U.S., France and Spain this year.
Turkish officials say he flew into Istanbul on a private jet along with an “autopsy expert” Oct. 2 and left that night. That was the same day Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who wrote critically of Prince Mohammed’s rise to power, entered the consulate and was not seen again.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that it “certainly looks” as though Khashoggi is dead, and that the consequences for the Saudis “will have to be very severe” if they are found to have killed him, sharply raising pressures on the kingdom as it prepares its own accounting of the journalist’s disappearance.
In a further sign of that pressure, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he will not attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia, as did senior government officials from France, Britain and the Netherlands. Several top business executives have also canceled plans to attend, as has the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.
Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations “baseless,” has not responded to repeated requests for comment over recent days, including on Thursday over
Mutreb’s identification.
Trump’s remarks reflect apparent shifting strategies and views in the White House over its response and possible punishments toward one of its key Middle East allies.
Trump has said any U.S. actions over Khashoggi’s disappearance must take into account the security and defense ties the United States has with the kingdom. But Trump also must contend with the international furor at Saudi Arabia, and calls within Republican ranks to take a harder line.
As he boarded a flight to Montana for a political rally, Trump was asked by a journalist whether he believed Khashoggi was dead.
“It certainly looks that way to me,” he said. “It’s very sad.”
Mutreb’s appearance at the consulate, as well as later at the consul general’s residence, adds to the growing pressure on Saudi Arabia amid international outrage over the disappearance of the writer, whom Turkish officials say was killed and dismembered.
The pro-government Sabah newspaper on Thursday first published the images of Mutreb, showing him walking past police barricades at the consulate at 9:55 a.m. with several men trailing behind him. Khashoggi arrived at the consulate several hours later at 1:14 p.m., then disappeared while his fiancee waited outside for him.
A report Wednesday by the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak, citing what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggi’s slaying, said a Saudi team immediately accosted the 60-year-old journalist after he entered the consulate, cut off his fingers and decapitated him.
Previously leaked surveillance footage showed consular vehicles moving from the consulate to the consul general’s official residence, 1.2 miles away, a little under two hours after Khashoggi walked inside. The Sabah-published photo showed an image of Mutreb at 4:53 p.m. at the consul’s home, then at 5:15 p.m. checking out of a hotel. He later cleared an airport security check at 5:58 p.m. before flying out of Istanbul.
It is uncertain, however, if a self-run inquest or conclusions by the Saudis could quell international anger over the disappearance of Khashoggi.
The Trump administration is also facing growing bipartisan outrage in Congress over Saudi Arabia’s role in Khashoggi’s disappearance.
“Mr. Khashoggi is dead,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told reporters at the Capitol, according to Voice of America News and others. “I don’t think the aliens abducted him. I think he’s dead, and I think the Saudis killed him.”
In a tweet, Sen. Marco Rubio R-Fla., said: “Must not accept a strategic alliance with #SaudiArabia which requires our silence when they butcher a political critic.”
Administration officials, meanwhile, have told Trump that the Saudis may come up with a narrative that may blame someone else in the kingdom and try to insulate King Salman and Prince Mohammed, the country’s de facto ruler. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions.
Trump said the White House expected to have a Saudi account of the Khashoggi case “very soon.”
“And I think we’ll be making a statement, a very strong statement,” he added. “But, we’re waiting for the results of about three different investigations, and we should be able to get to the bottom fairly soon.”
Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the White House to allow “a few more days” for Saudi Arabia to issue its own report on Khashoggi, even as Turkish police sharply expanded their investigation.
The Washington Post published Thursday what it described as Khashoggi’s last column, in which he pointed to the muted international response to ongoing abuses against journalists by governments in the Middle East.
“As a result, Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate,” Khashoggi wrote. He added: “The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power.”