Jamal Khashoggi: Turkey to Search Saudi Consulate

By Justice Dzido On Oct 9, 2018

Jamal Khashoggi has not been seen since entering the consulate

urkey says it will conduct a search of Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul over the missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The country’s foreign ministry said Saudi Arabia was “open to co-operation” and a requested search of the building could now go ahead as part of the investigation.

Mr Khashoggi was last seen visiting the consulate last week and Turkey says he may have been murdered there.

Saudi Arabia denies the suggestion.

It says the journalist left the consulate shortly after arriving, while Turkey says he was not seen leaving the building.

The country has demanded Saudi Arabia prove he left – despite not giving evidence of the claim he was killed inside.

A critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Mr Khashoggi was living in self-imposed exile in the US and writing opinion pieces for the Washington Post before his disappearance.

BBC Newshour interviewed the journalist just three days before his visit to the consulate, and in an off-air conversation asked if he would ever return to his home country.

The programme has released audio of the conversation, saying that although it would not normally do so, it had decided to make an exception “in light of the circumstances”.

Three days before he disappeared, we interviewed Jamal Khashoggi. Off air, we asked him about the possibility of returning to Saudi Arabia. We wouldn't normally release this conversation but we've decided to make an exception in light of the circumstances. https://t.co/Qj9pQ2ExbP pic.twitter.com/cmWimMj93H

— BBC Newshour (@BBCNewshour) October 8, 2018

US President Donald Trump has said he is concerned about Mr Khashoggi, while US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Saudi Arabia to “support a thorough investigation” of his disappearance and “to be transparent about the results”.

Last week, Crown Prince Mohammed told Bloomberg News that his government was “very keen to know what happened to him”, and that Mr Khashoggi had left “after a few minutes or one hour”.

Crown Prince Mohammed’s brother and the Saudi ambassador to the US, Khaled, has insisted all the reports about his disappearance or death “are completely false and baseless”.

“Jamal has many friends in Saudi Arabia, and I am one of them,” he said in a statement, saying the two had kept in touch while he was living abroad “despite differences”.

When was he last seen?

Jamal Khashoggi went to the consulate last Tuesday to obtain a document certifying he had divorced his ex-wife, so that he could remarry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz.

The journalist’s fiancée Hatice Cengiz said she had waited outside for 11 hours, but he did not come out

She said Mr Khashoggi had been required to surrender his mobile phone, which is standard practice in some diplomatic missions.

He told her to call an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan if he did not return.

What have both countries said?

Turkish officials say Mr Khashoggi was killed on the premises and his body was then removed.

The head of the Turkish-Arab Media Association, Turan Kislakci, told the New York Times that Turkish police officers providing security for the consulate had checked their security cameras and did not see the journalist leave on foot.

Turkey reportedly says it is scouring road cameras for a black van they believe carried Mr Khashoggi’s body from the consulate, while the Washington Post released CCTV footage of the journalist entering the building on Monday.

Saudi Arabia meanwhile says the allegations were baseless. It has allowed journalists into the consulate to show Mr Khashoggi is not there, reportedly even opening cupboards.

The Saudi consulate said Khashoggi left after completing paperwork

Who is Jamal Khashoggi?

He is a high-profile critic of the crown prince. Mr Khashoggi, 59, has more than 1.6 million Twitter followers and has written for the Washington Post opinion section.

A former editor of the al-Watan newspaper and a short-lived Saudi TV news channel, Mr Khashoggi was for years seen as close to the Saudi royal family. He served as an adviser to senior Saudi officials.

But after several of his friends were arrested, his column was cancelled by the al-Hayat newspaper and he was allegedly warned to stop tweeting, Mr Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia for the US.

There he wrote opinion pieces for the Washington Post and continued to appear on Arab and Western TV channels.

Source: BBC