BICOM

Turkish officials believe that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Khashoggi disappeared last Tuesday after entering the consulate to sign documents related to his forthcoming marriage. One Turkish official told Reuters: “The initial assessment of the Turkish police is that Khashoggi has been killed at the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate.”

Yasin Aktay, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s advisor, said Khashoggi had been killed and that a team of 15 Saudi nationals who travelled to Turkey on the day of Khashoggi’s disappearance were “most certainly involved”. Speaking at a press conference on Sunday afternoon, President Erdogan said he was following Khashoggi’s case personally but that he would wait for the results of the prosecutor’s investigation.

Saudi Arabia’s consul-general in Istanbul, Mohammad al-Otaibi, told Reuters earlier on Saturday that his country was helping search for Khashoggi and dismissed talk of abduction. He opened up his mission to Reuters to show that Khashoggi was not on the premises.

Khashoggi, a well-known dissident in Saudi Arabia, chose to live abroad last year after criticising the Saudi Government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Over the past year he has written columns for newspapers, including the Washington Post, criticising Saudi policies towards Qatar and Canada, the war in Yemen and a crackdown on dissent which has seen dozens of people detained. Crown Prince bin Salman denied knowing the whereabouts of Khashoggi in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, but said the Saudi authorities would allow Turkey to search the consulate for Khashoggi.

The Washington Post said it would be a “monstrous and unfathomable act” if Khashoggi has been killed.