S. ARABIA LETS TURKEY SEARCH CONSULATE
Fiancee seeks Trump’s help to shed light on ‘Washington Post’ writer’s disappearance
SAUDI Arabia agreed to let Turkish authorities search its Istanbul consulate in investigations into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as his fiancee asked Donald Trump to help uncover what happened to the Riyadh critic.
There has been fierce speculation over what happened to Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who wrote for Arab and Western media, after he vanished on Oct 2 after a visit to the consulate to obtain documents.
While Riyadh claimed he had left the consulate, Turkish police said Khashoggi did not emerge from the building.
Government sources said police believed the journalist was killed inside the consulate, claims which Riyadh dismissed as “baseless”.
“Saudi authorities said they were open to cooperation and that a search can be conducted at the consulate building,” Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said on Tuesday.
The search will be conducted “in an intense manner”, he said without giving any date.
Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, wrote in an opinion piece for The Washington Post that she was “confident in the abilities of Turkish government officials”.
But she also implored “President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to help shed light on Jamal’s disappearance”.
Trump on Monday expressed concern about Khashoggi’s case and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a thorough probe.
Turkish police were looking into two private aircraft which landed at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport on Oct 2 at different times carrying 15 people of interest in the case, as well as the possibility that Khashoggi was kidnapped and taken aboard one of the planes, local media reported.
Khashoggi, a former Saudi government adviser, had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year fearing possible arrest.
He has been critical of some policies of the crown prince and Riyadh’s intervention in the war in Yemen.
Police also said a team of 15 Saudis were sent to Istanbul and were in the building at the same time as Khashoggi.
Turkish security officials were working to identify the 15 individuals, state broadcaster TRT World reported, adding that officials believe the Saudis may have taken the consulate’s CCTV footage with them when they returned to Riyadh.