Search for remains continues; Saudi conference shunned
WASHINGTON/ISTANBUL/ ANKARA: Turkish police were searching a forest on the outskirts of Istanbul and a city near the Sea of Marmara for remains of a Saudi dissident journalist who disappeared two weeks ago after entering the Saudi consulate, two Turkish officials said yesterday.
Investigators had also recovered ‘‘many samples’’ from their searches of the consulate and the consul’s residence, the senior officials said, and would attempt to analyse them for traces of the DNA of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia has denied allegations by Turkish officials who say Khashoggi was killed inside the building and his body removed. His disappearance and likely death has caused an international outcry and strained relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States and European countries.
Authorities widened the geographic focus of the search after tracking the routes and stops of cars that left the Saudi consul
ate and the consul’s residence on October 2, the day Khashoggi was last seen, the senior officials said.
Khashoggi’s killers may have dumped his remains in Belgrad Forest near Istanbul and at a rural location near the city of Yalova, a 90km drive south of Istanbul, the officials said.
Turkish investigators yesterday for a second time searched the Saudi consulate where Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post columnist who was a strong critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, vanished.
They have also searched the consul’s residence.
Many samples were taken from the consulate and the residence, the official said, including soil and water. All the samples will be taken to analyse for traces of Khashoggi’s DNA.
United States President Donald Trump said yesterday he presumed Khashoggi was dead and warned the US response to Saudi Arabia would likely be ‘‘very severe’’ but added he still wanted to get to the bottom of what exactly happened. Trump acknowledged for the first time it was likely Khashoggi had been killed.
‘‘It certainly looks that way to me. It’s very sad.’’
Turkish officials have said they believe the Saudi journalist was murdered at the consulate and his body chopped up and removed.
Saudi Arabia has denied involvement in the disappearance.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has abandoned plans to attend an investor conference in Riyadh, putting the highprofile event in question.
Mnuchin became the latest Western official to pull out of the investment conference in Riyadh scheduled for October 2325, joining a list of international officials and business executives.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Britain’s Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox pulled out of the investment summit, citing concern over Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Dutch Finance Minister Wopka Hoekstra also scrapped plans to attend while the Dutch Government cancelled a trade mission to Saudi Arabia next month.
A US Government source said US intelligence agencies were increasingly convinced of the crown prince’s culpability in the operation against Khashoggi, which they believe resulted in his death.
The Turkish search, which used a drone, included the roof and garage.
The progovernment Sabah newspaper published a series of photos of a man it identified as someone who travels with the Saudi crown prince. The timestamped photos showed the man outside the Saudi consulate building in Istanbul on the morning Khashoggi disappeared, Sabah said.
Four Western rights groups — Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders — urged Turkey to ask the United Nations to investigate Khashoggi’s disappearance.
‘‘UN involvement is the best
US intelligence agencies were increasingly convinced of the crown prince’s culpability in the operation
against Khashoggi
guarantee against a Saudi whitewash or attempts by other governments to sweep the issue under the carpet to preserve lucrative business ties with Riyadh,’’ Robert Mahoney, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow did not have enough information about Khashoggi’s disappearance to justify harming ties with Riyadh. His government would wait for details, Putin told a forum in Sochi.