Saudis still denying journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder despite reports he recorded torture and death
The outcry surrounding his disappearance threatens to not just harm brittle Turkey-Saudi relations but also alarm the kingdom’s supporters in the West and tarnish the reform drive spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
A delegation of a dozen Saudi officials was in Turkey on Saturday for talks on the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi after Riyadh slammed as “baseless lies” Turkish accusations he was killed inside its Istanbul consulate.
With the mystery of his fate unresolved 11 days after he walked into the consulate and failed to reappear, a pro-government Turkish daily said Khashoggi had recorded his own interrogation inside the mission on an Apple Watch.
Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate and lurid claims have been leaked to media that he was tortured and even dismembered.
Saudi insists Khashoggi, whose writings have been critical of Prince Mohammed and entered the consulate for paperwork for his marriage to his Turkish fiancée, left the building safely but has yet to offer visual evidence of this.
The outcry surrounding his disappearance threatens to not just harm brittle Turkey-Saudi relations but also alarm the kingdom’s supporters in the West and tarnish the reform drive spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
US President Donald Trump warned Washington would inflict “severe punishment” if Saudi Arabia was found to be responsible.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment,” Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes programme, according to an extract of an interview that was released on Saturday.