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TURKEY-SAUDI-DIPLOMACY-CRIME-SEARCH
Saudis deny permission to search consulate well: report
ISTANBUL, Oct 24, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Saudi authorities denied permission to
Turkish police to search a well in the garden of the kingdom’s consulate in
Istanbul as part of a probe into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi,
state media reported Wednesday.
Turkish police this month searched the consulate twice, and the residence
of the Saudi consul general, to gather evidence into what President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said was a “savage murder” of Khashoggi.
The Washington Post contributor and Riyadh critic was killed inside the
Saudi consulate on October 2, which he had visited to obtain documents for
his marriage to a Turkish woman.
Basing its report on the security sources, the Anadolu news agency
reported that Turkish police “were denied authorisation by Saudi officials to
search the well in the consulate garden”.
Turkey is conducting its own investigation into the killing but it remains
unclear where the body of Khashoggi is.
Erdogan has not pointed the finger of blame at Riyadh but analysts say
Ankara is using the drip-by-drip information leaked to Turkish media outlets
as a tool of pressure against the Saudi leadership.
After 17 days of vehement denials, Saudi Arabia asserted Saturday that the
journalist was killed in a “brawl and fist fight” inside a Saudi consulate in
Istanbul — without revealing the whereabouts of his body.
Turkish media have reported that the authorities here have audio tapes in
which Khashoggi’s alleged killers tortured him by cutting his fingers off
before his decapitation.
Turkish police were also hunting for the remains in an Istanbul forest.
On Tuesday, the police searched an abandoned car belonging to the Saudi
consulate in an underground car park in the Sultangazi district of Istanbul.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1833 hrs