Turkish police search villas in Khashoggi investigation

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Police searched a mansion in northwestern Turkey belonging to a Saudi citizen on Monday after investigators determined that the man had been in contact with one of the suspects in the slaying of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Turkish officials said.

Crime scene investigators and other officials, aided by sniffer dogs and a drone, scoured the luxury villa near the town of Termal, in Yalova province, and later expanded their search to the grounds of the neighboring villa, the state-run Anadolu agency reported.

Police spent around 10 hours searching the two villas for the journalist’s remains, Anadolu reported, without saying if any evidence or trace had been found.

The Istanbul prosecutor’s office said Mansour Othman Abbahussain — a member of a 15-person squad sent from Riyadh to kill Khashoggi — had contacted the mansion’s owner, Mohammed Ahmed Alfaozan, by telephone a day before Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 killing.

“It is being assessed that this conversation was geared toward the disposal (or) the hiding of Jamal Khashoggi’s body after its dismemberment,” the prosecutor’s statement read. It did not mention any possible findings at the site.

Turkey has maintained pressure on Saudi Arabia over the killing of the U.S.-based columnist for The Washington Post. Khashoggi was a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

A 15-member assassination squad sent from Riyadh strangled and dismembered Khashoggi. His remains have yet to be found.

Ankara insists the orders for the killing came from the highest levels of the Saudi government, but not King Salman.