ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON, Oct 20
Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi died in a fight inside its Istanbul consulate, its first admission of his death after two weeks of denials that have shaken Western relations with the powerful kingdom.
Riyadh provided no evidence to support its account of the circumstances that led to Khashoggi’s death and it was still unclear whether other governments would be satisfied with it.
Turkish officials suspect Khashoggi, a critic of the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was tortured and killed inside the consulate by Saudi agents. His body has yet to be found.
US President Donald Trump, who has forged close ties with the world’s top oil exporter and made Prince Mohammed a centerpiece of his foreign policy, said the Saudi account was credible.
Trump said he would speak with the crown prince, the kingdom’s de facto ruler. But Trump again emphasised Riyadh’s role in countering regional rival Iran and the importance a lucrative US arms sales to Saudi Arabia for American jobs.
Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post columnist, went missing after entering the consulate on October 2 to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage.
Days later, Turkish officials said they believed he was killed in the building and his body cut up, an allegation Saudi Arabia had, until now, strenuously denied.
The Saudi public prosecutor said on Saturday that a fight broke out between Khashoggi and people who met him in the consulate, leading to his death. Eighteen Saudi nationals had been arrested, the prosecutor said in a statement.
A Saudi official told Reuters separately: “A group of Saudis had a physical altercation and Jamal died as a result of the chokehold. They were trying to keep him quiet.”
Turkish investigators, who have been combing a forest and other sites outside Istanbul, are likely to find out what happened to Khashoggi’s body “before long”, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Saturday.
Saudi state media said King Salman had ordered the dismissal of five officials, including Saud al-Qahtani, a royal court adviser seen as the right-hand man to the Crown Prince and deputy intelligence chief Ahmed Asiri. — Reuters
Amnesty urges UN probe, independent autopsy
- Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia’s explanation of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul appeared to be a whitewash of “an appalling assassination”
- ”The probe findings by the Saudi authorities claiming that Khashoggi died as a result of a ‘fist-fight’ inside the consulate are not trustworthy and marks an abysmal new low to Saudi Arabia’s human rights record,” Middle East director, said
- It called on Saudi authorities to produce Khashoggi’s body so that independent forensic experts could perform an autopsy. It also said the United Nations should investigate his death
Western reaction cautious on confession
- Before the Saudi announcements, President Trump had said he might consider sanctions. The White House said it would continue to press for “justice that is timely and transparent”
- For other Western allies, a main question will be whether they believe Prince Mohammed, who has painted himself as a reformer, has any culpability
- Britian said it was considering its “next steps”, while Australia said it pulled out of a planned investment summit in Saudi Arabia in protest at the killing
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