Khashoggi killing: how Saudi prince’s aide ‘ran slaughter via Skype’, reportedly telling men ‘bring me the head of the dog’
- Saud al-Qahtani has been a key figure in the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
- Qahtani was beamed into the room where Jamal Khashoggi was held, hurling insults at the journalist before his murder, sources say
He ran social media for Saudi Arabia’s crown prince. He masterminded the arrest of hundreds of his country’s elite. He detained a Lebanese prime minister.
And according to two intelligence sources, he ran journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by giving orders over Skype.
Saud al-Qahtani, a top aide for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (commonly known by his initials MbS), is one of the fall guys as Riyadh tries to stem international outrage at Khashoggi’s death. On Saturday, Saudi state media said Qahtani and four other officials had been sacked over the killing carried out by a 15-man hit team.
But Qahtani’s influence in the crown prince’s entourage has been so vast over the past three years – his own rise tracking that of his boss – that it will be hard for Saudi officials to paint Qahtani as the mastermind of the murder without also raising questions about the involvement of Prince Mohammed, according to several sources with links to the royal court.
Do you think I make decisions without guidance? I am an employee and a faithful executor of the orders of my lord the king and my lord the faithful crown prince
“This episode won’t topple MbS, but it has hit his image which will take a long time to be repaired if it ever does. The king is protecting him,” one of the sources with ties to the royal court said.