MURDER CLAIMS ‘BASELESS’
Saudi Arabia rejects Turkish accusations
SAUDI Arabia dismissed yesterday accusations that Jamal Khashoggi was ordered murdered by a hit squad inside its Istanbul consulate as “lies and baseless a l l e g at i o ns ”, a s Riyadh and Ankara spar over the missing journalist’s fate.
A Saudi delegation was in Turkey for talks on the case, which threatens not only to harm fragile relations between the two countries but also to do serious damage to the reformist credentials of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the kingdom’s ties to the West.
As the controversy intensified, the Washington Post reported Turkish officials had recordings made from inside the building that allegedly proved their claims Khashoggi was tortured and killed at the consulate.
Big names from media and business have already cancelled appearances at a major conference in Riyadh this month and both the IMF chief and the United States treasury secretary made their attendance conditional on the findings in the case.
In the first Saudi ministerial reaction to Turkish accusations that Khashoggi was killed, Interior Minister Prince Abdel Aziz bin Saud bin Nayef condemned “what has been reported in certain media concerning false accusations against Saudi Arabia... in the case of the disappearance of citizen Khashoggi”.
“What has been reported on the matter of orders to kill him is a lie and a baseless allegation,” the minister said in comments carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
He added that the kingdom was “in compliance with international laws and conventions”.
Saudi journalist and Washington Post contributor Khashoggi vanished on Oct 2 after entering the consulate to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage.
The Saudi delegation, whose composition was not immediately clear, is expected to meet Turkish officials in Ankara at the weekend, state media said on Friday.
It is likely that they will take part in a joint working group on the case, whose creation was announced on Thursday by Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin following a request by Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi official source quoted by SPA news agency said it was “a positive move” Turkey had agreed to the creation of what it described as a “joint action team”.
The Turkish leadership has so far stopped short of accusing Saudi Arabia, although pro-government media have published sensational claims, including that an “assassination team” was sent to Istanbul to kill Khashoggi.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has challenged Saudi Arabia to provide CCTV images to back up its account that Khashoggi left the consulate safely.
Khashoggi, a Saudi national living in the US since September 2017 fearing arrest, criticised some policies of Mohammed bin Salman and Riyadh’s intervention in the war in Yemen.
The Washington Post reported the Turkish government has told US officials it has audio and video recordings which show how Khashoggi was “interrogated, tortured and then murdered” inside the consulate before his body was dismembered.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde said yesterday she was “horrified” by reports about the Saudi dissident’s fate, while US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed “concern”.
But both said that for now they still planned to attend an Oct 2325 conference in Riyadh, dubbed “Davos in the Desert” in the Swiss resort.