Journalist killed in Saudi consulate hit – Turkish police
ISTANBUL: Turkish police believe that prominent Saudi journalist and critic Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi mission in Istanbul after he went missing on Tuesday, according to an unnamed government official.
“Based on their initial findings, the police believe that the journalist was killed by a team especially sent to Istanbul and who left the same day,” the official told AFP on Saturday.
It came hours after police confirmed that around 15 Saudis, including officials, arrived in Istanbul on two flights on Tuesday and were at the consulate at the same time as Khashoggi.
The Washington Post contributor had gone to the consulate on an administrative errand but “did not come back out” of the building, police had told the state-run Anadolu news agency.
On the back of the preliminary investigation, Ankara announced Saturday it had opened an official probe into his disappearance.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency, quoting an unnamed official at the Istanbul consulate, denied the reports of Khashoggi’s murder.
“The official strongly denounced these baseless allegations,” the agency wrote, adding that a team of Saudi investigators were in Turkey working with local authorities.
Reacting to news of the alleged murder, the journalist’s Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said on Twitter she “did not believe he has been killed”. In his columns, Khashoggi has been critical of some policies of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Riyadh’s intervention in the war in Yemen.
The former government adviser, who turns 60 on Oct 13, has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year to avoid possible arrest.
Press freedom campaigners condemned reports of Khashoggi’s possible murder, with the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists demanding Riyadh give “a full and credible account” of what happened to him inside the consulate. A general view of the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. — AFP photo
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Twitter that if reports of Khashoggi’s death were confirmed, “this would constitute a horrific, utterly deplorable, and absolutely unacceptable assault on press freedom”.
Prince Mohammed said in an interview with Bloomberg published Friday that the journalist had left the consulate and Turkish authorities could search the building, which is Saudi sovereign territory.
“We are ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises,” he said, adding that “we will allow them to enter and search and do whatever they want to do... We have nothing to hide”.
The Saudi crown prince also said he understood that Khashoggi had entered the consulate but then “got out after a few minutes or one hour”.
“We are investigating this through the foreign ministry to see exactly what happened at that time,” he added.
According to his fiancee Cengiz, Khashoggi had visited the consulate to receive an official document for his marriage.
Turkey’s foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned Saudi Arabia’s ambassador over the issue.
A spokesperson for the US State Department said: “We are not in a position to confirm these reports, but we are closely following the situation.”
We are investigating this through the foreign ministry to see exactly what happened at that time. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman