Saudi Public Prosecutor: Khashoggi Murder Premeditated
Local Editor
Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor said Thursday the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate this month was premeditated, reversing previous official statements that the killing was unintended. The death of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic, has sparked global outrage and mushroomed into a crisis for the world’s top oil exporter and strategic ally of the West.
The Saudi disclosure came after CIA Director Gina Haspel heard an audio recording of the killing during a fact-finding visit to Turkey this week. The spy chief briefed President Donald Trump about Khashoggi Thursday.
Saudi officials initially denied having anything to do with Khashoggi’s disappearance after he entered the consulate on Oct. 2, before changing the official account to say an internal investigation suggested he was accidentally killed in a botched operation to return him to the kingdom.
Saudi state TV Thursday quoted the Saudi public prosecutor as saying the killing was premeditated, and that prosecutors were interrogating suspects on the basis of information provided by a joint Saudi-Turkish task force.
“Information from the Turkish side affirms that the suspects in Khashoggi’s case premeditated their crime,” said the statement carried by state TV.
Turkey and Western allies of Riyadh have both voiced deep skepticism about Saudi explanations of the killing.
Turkish officials suspect Khashoggi, 59, was killed inside the consulate by Saudi agents and his body cut up.
Turkish sources say authorities have an audio recording purportedly documenting the murder.
Pro-government Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak, citing the audio, has said his torturers cut off his fingers during an interrogation and later beheaded him.
The CIA’s Haspel heard an audio recording of Khashoggi’s death during her trip to Turkey, sources told Reuters. It was not clear what could be heard. It was the first indication Ankara has shared its key investigative evidence.
“We have shared with those who sought additional information some of the information and findings that the prosecutor has allowed us to share,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters, without giving details.
Trump, the kingdom’s staunchest Western ally, was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman [MBS] bore ultimate responsibility for the operation that led to Khashoggi’s death.
How Western allies deal with Riyadh will hinge on the extent to which they believe responsibility for Khashoggi’s death lies directly with the prince and the Saudi authorities.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the killing in the strongest terms possible during a phone call with King Salman, and vowed to take appropriate measures in response, the chancellery said.
The king also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by telephone to brief him on the investigation, according to the official Saudi press agency.
The king assured Putin that the Saudi government was determined to hold the guilty parties accountable and to make sure “they receive their punishment.”
Saudi Arabia has detained 18 people and dismissed five senior government officials as part of the investigation into Khashoggi’s murder. Some were members of a 15-man hit team, many of them Saudi intelligence operatives, who flew into Istanbul hours before Khashoggi’s death, Turkish security sources say.
Turkish police were investigating water samples from a well at the consulate Thursday after initially being denied access, broadcaster CNN Turk said.
Investigators emptied the well and are awaiting the results of an analysis of the water to determine whether any human remains were dumped there, according to Yeni Safak. King Salman, who has delegated the day-to-day running of Saudi Arabia to the crown prince, ordered Saturday a restructuring of the general intelligence agency.
Saudi state news agency SPA said Thursday that MBS had presided over the first meeting of a committee to carry out that restructuring.
The prince promised Wednesday the killers would be brought to justice, his first public comments on the matter.
Khashoggi’s eldest son, Salah, and his family arrived Thursday in Washington on a flight from Saudi Arabia, according to two sources close to the family. One source said Salah Khashoggi holds dual US-Saudi citizenship and had been under a travel ban.
This week he attended a meeting at al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh in which Salah and other family members received condolences from King Salman and MBS.
Dozens of people gathered outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul Thursday in a vigil to demand justice. Several carried cardboard images of his face and signs reading “Khashoggi’s friends”. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called Khashoggi’s murder a “savage killing” and demanded Riyadh punish those responsible, no matter how highly placed.
Saudi Arabia is the lynchpin of a US-backed regional bloc against Iran but the crisis has strained Riyadh’s relations with the West. Dozens of Western officials, bankers and company executives shunned a big investment conference in Riyadh this week. But striking a defiant tone, MBS told international investors at the three-day conference Wednesday that the furor would not derail the kingdom’s reform drive.
“We will prove to the world that the two governments [Saudi Arabia and Turkey] are cooperating to punish any criminal, any culprit, and at the end justice will prevail,” he said to applause.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
