Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Change in shifting Saudi narrative
Turkish evidence suggests journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing could have been premeditated.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Signaling a major pivot in its narrative, Saudi Arabia on Thursday said evidence shows that the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was premeditated, an apparent effort to ease international outrage over the death of a prominent critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
A statement by Saudi Attorney General Saud alMojeb cited Turkish evidence that the slaying was planned, contradicting a Saudi assertion days ago that rogue officials from the kingdom killed him by mistake during a brawl inside their Istanbul consulate. That earlier assertion, in turn, backtracked from an initial statement that Saudi authorities knew nothing about what happened to the columnist for The Washington Post, who vanished after entering the consulate Oct. 2.
The shifting explanations indicate Saudi Arabia is scrambling for a way out of the crisis that has enveloped the world’s largest oil exporter and a major U.S. ally in the Middle East. But a solution seems a long way off, partly because of deepening skepticism that the brazen crime could have been carried out without the knowledge of Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s heir apparent.
On Thursday, Prince Mohammed attended the first meeting of a committee aiming to restructure the kingdom’s intelligence services after the killing of Khashoggi, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said.
Khashoggi’s death has derailed the prince’s campaign to project a modern image of the ultraconservative country, instead highlighting the brutal lengths to which some top officials in the government have gone to silence its critics. Khashoggi, who lived in self-imposed exile in Virginia for nearly a year before his death, had written critically of Mohammed’s crackdown on dissent.
After the journalist disappeared, Saudi Arabia initially insisted Khashoggi had walked out of the consulate after visiting the building. It later dropped that account for a new one, saying it had detained 18 people for what it described as an accidental killing during a “fistfight.”
What President Donald Trump called “one of the worst cover-ups in the history of cover-ups” was revealed to the world by Turkish leaks of information, including references to purported audio recordings of the killing, and security camera footage of the Saudi officials who were involved as they moved around Istanbul.
Saudi officials said this week that the kingdom sent a team to Turkey that included a forensics expert and a member whose job was to dress in the 59-yearold writer’s clothes and pretend to be him — though they were insisting as late as Tuesday that his death was an accident.
As the shocking revelations mount, Turkey is pushing Saudi Arabia for more detail.
“Jamal Khashoggi’s body still hasn’t been found. Where is it?” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
CIA Director Gina Haspel on Thursday briefed Trump about the evidence in Khashoggi’s death that she reviewed during a trip to Turkey.
Also Thursday, Human Rights Watch said that Khashoggi’s son, Salah, and his family have left Saudi Arabia for the U.S. after a travel ban on them was lifted. Saudi media showed Salah Khashoggi meeting Tuesday with the crown prince, who reportedly expressed his condolences.