Circle tightens on MBS as Turkey issues arrest warrants for two Saudis, including his top aide
Turkey continues its investigation into the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, and seeks arrest warrants for two Saudi officials, one of whom is known to have been a former adviser to the crown prince
Istanbul’s chief prosecutor filed warrants for the arrest of a top aide to MBS and the deputy head of Saudi Arabia’s foreign intelligence service on suspicion of planning the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. While the U.N. called for an international investigation on the murder case yesterday, senior U.S. senators said they were certain that MBS ordered the journalist’s murder TURKEY issued arrest warrants yesterday for two former high-ranking Saudi officials over their involvement in the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The United Nations human rights chief also said yesterday the case must be investigated by international parties as Riyadh’s responses have not convinced the international community. The decision of the court came after the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office demanded the arrests of Saud al-Qahtani, a top aide to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), and Ahmed al-Asiri, a former deputy intelligence chief, for their alleged involvement in the killing. “The prosecution’s move to issue arrest warrants for Asiri and al-Qahtani reflects the view that Saudi authorities won’t take formal action against those individuals,” one of the Turkish officials said. Khashoggi was killed in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate on Oct. 2 by a team of 15 people consisting of Saudi officials who arrived in Turkey for his murder and a cover-up operation, including dismembering Khashoggi’s body. All of the identified individuals have since left Turkey. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said the crown prince had no prior knowledge of the murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh later said Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed.
a question at a press conference in Brussels yesterday, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that the investigation on the case continues and Turkey is determined to pursue the truth to the end.
“If there is an obstacle, we will not hesitate to apply for an international investigation,” Çavuşoğlu said. “We asked for information on investigations in Saudi Arabia but couldn’t get it. We share information but Saudi Arabia should also be transparent. Instead, we see conflicting remarks. On the other hand, [Khashoggi’s] body is still missing.”
Following conflicting statements, Saudi authorities launched an investigation against 21 people including Asiri and alQahtani over the murder, detaining some of the suspects and seeking the death penalty for five of them. Asiri and al-Qahtani were sacked from their positions, according to a statement released on Oct. 20. Turkey has been seeking the extradition of 18 suspects, including the 15 members of the assassination squad.
UN DEMANDS INTERNATIONAL PROBE FOR JOURNALIST’S KILLING
Despite Saudi Arabia’s ongoing denials, as the mystery over the case still continues, the pressures and expectations from the international community have also escalated. The latest statement came from the United Nations yesterday, saying that an international investigation should be launched to solve the Khashoggi case.
U.N. Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet was asked at news conference in Geneva about the need for an international inquiry.
“I do believe it is really needed in terms of ensuring what really happened and who are the (people) responsible for that awful killing,” she replied.
Meanwhile, Çavuşoğlu said last month during a joint news conference in Ankara with top EU diplomat Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn, “Since the process [of uncovering the case] took a long time, demands are coming to both Turkey and the United Nations from the international community for an international investigation.” He underlined that Turkey is ready to cooperate with anyone on the case, particularly Saudi Arabia, emphasizing that the country will conduct its own investigation hand in hand with the international one.
SENIOR U.S. SENATORS ‘CONVINCED EVEN MORE’ THAT MBS IS GUILTY
Meanwhile, senior U.S. senators also accused the crown prince on the issue on Tuesday, saying that they are even more convinced that he was involved in the murder, following CIA Director Gina Haspel’s briefing on the issue.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said he believes if the crown prince were put on trial, a jury would find him guilty in “about 30 minutes.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who demanded the briefing with Haspel, said there is “zero chance” the crown prince wasn’t involved in Khashoggi’s death.
“There’s not a smoking gun. There’s a smoking saw,” Graham said, referring to reports from the Turkish government that said Saudi agents used a saw to dismember Khashoggi after he was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Graham said “you have to be willfully blind” not to conclude that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the crown prince’s command.
The Senate also overwhelmingly voted last week to move forward on a resolution curtailing U.S. backing for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
U.S. intelligence officials also have concluded previously that the crown prince must have at least known of the plot although President Donald Trump insisted on supporting both MBS and Saudi Arabia by highlighting that their importance for the U.S. as an ally.
Haspel met with a small group of senators, including leadership, the chairmen and top Democrats on key national security committees, after senators in both parties complained that she didn’t attend an all-Senate briefing with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last week.
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said after the briefing that somebody should be punished.
“Now, the question is, how do you separate the Saudi crown prince and his group from the nation itself,” he said.
Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin said the briefing with Haspel “clearly went in to an evaluation of the intelligence” and was much more informative than the session with Mattis and Pompeo.
“I went in believing the crown prince was directly responsible or at least complicit in this and my feelings were strengthened by the information we were given,” Durbin said. “Every senator should hear what I heard this afternoon,” Durbin added.
The meeting with a small number of senators drew reactions toward Haspel from the excluded senators.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a critic of Saudi Arabia, said that excluding some lawmakers is “the very definition of the deep state” and that he suspected that the Trump administration is attempting to get some lawmakers to switch their votes on the resolution by giving them information.
Following the senators’ statements, Saudi Arabia made a statement on the issue yesterday, denying the accusation that claims MBS had a part in the murder.
“At no time did the Crown Prince correspond with any Saudi officials in any government entity on harming Jamal Khashoggi,” Fatimah Baeshen, a spokesperson for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said in a statement on Twitter.
“We categorically reject any accusations purportedly linking the Crown Prince to this horrific incident,” she said. “We stand by our initial statements which distill that the Crown Prince communicates regularly with various senior officials within the Royal Court on different matters.”
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been forthright in addressing this tragic mistake, is holding people responsible accountable, and putting into place corrective measures to ensure an institutional gap of this catastrophic nature does not happen again,” Baeshen further said.