Trump threatens to close border
Mystery man could link prince to missing journo
A member of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage during several trips abroad walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there, a surveillance photo leaked yesterday shows, drawing the kingdom’s heir-apparent closer to the columnist’s alleged slaying.
The man, identified by Turkish officials as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, has been photographed in the background of Prince Mohammed’s trips to the US, France and Spain this year.
Turkish officials say he flew into Istanbul on a private jet along with an “autopsy expert” October 2 and left that night. That was the same day Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who wrote critically of Prince Mohammed’s rise to power, entered the consulate and was not seen again.
Mutreb’s appearance at the consulate, as well as later at the consul general’s residence, adds to the growing pressure on Saudi Arabia amid international outrage over the disappearance of the writer, whom Turkish officials say was killed and dismembered.
In a further sign of that pressure, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he will not attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia, as did senior government officials from France, Britain and the Netherlands. Several top business executives have also canceled plans to attend, as has the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.
President Donald Trump, who first came out hard on the Saudis over the disappearance but had since has backed off, said yesterday that it “certainly looks” as though Khashoggi is dead, and that the consequences for the Saudis “will have to be very severe” if they are found to have killed him. Analysts say that as long as the Saudis refuse to acknowledge what happened to Khashoggi, the leaks about the case will probably continue.
The pro-government Sabah newspaper yesterday first published the images of Mutreb, showing him walking past police barricades at the consulate at 9.55am with several men trailing behind him. Khashoggi arrived at the consulate several hours later at 1.14pm, then disappeared while his fiance´e waited outside for him.
A report by the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak, citing what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggi’s slaying, said a Saudi team immediately accosted the 60-year-old journalist after he entered the consulate, cutting off his fingers and later decapitating him.
Previously leaked surveillance footage showed consular vehicles moving from the consulate to the consul general’s official residence, some 2km away, a little under two hours after Khashoggi walked inside. The Sabah-published pictured showed an image of the Mutreb at 4.53pm at the consul’s home, then at 5.15pm checking out of a hotel. He cleared an airport security check at 5.58pm before flying out of Istanbul.
Mutreb’s identity was confirmed by Turkish officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. Mutreb also was identified in state and progovernment media reports.
It’s unclear what relationship Mutreb has with Prince Mohammed.
Images shot by the Houston Chronicle and later distributed by the AP show Mutreb in Prince Mohammed’s entourage when he visited a Houston subdivision in April to see rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey. The same man wore lapel pins, including one of the US and Saudi flags intertwined, that other bodyguards accompanying Prince Mohammed wore on the trip.
Still, the idea that Mexico could close its porous southern border — or that the United States would choke off the lucrative trade and other traffic between the two nations — strained the imagination.
And, much like Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico is itself a country of many migrants, raising the question of whether the political will exists for a confrontation.
Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office on December 1, wants to avoid repression against migrants and also avoid angering the United States. He has long pushed economic development as a way to keep people from migrating, and on Thursday he reached out again.
“We will offer jobs, work to Central Americans. Anyone who wants to work in our country will have help, will have a work visa,” he pledged.
As the mass of humanity strung out from Guatemala City to the border, it was unclear whether those who made it the farthest would wait for their countrymen to arrive before attempting a mass crossing into Mexico.
By yesterday, the caravan had dispersed a bit, with the youngest and strongest of the migrants walking ahead together, some boarding buses or trying to hitch rides.
Mauro Verzzeletti, a priest who runs the Casa del Migrante shelter in the Guatemalan capital, said about 3000 people slept there overnight and left around 4am to continue the journey, adding that “more are arriving”.