BFF-53 Turkey probes claims that Saudis killed journalist

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Turkey probes claims that Saudis killed journalist

ISTANBUL, Oct 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
on Sunday said he was awaiting the results of the investigation into the
disappearance of a Saudi journalist, after a government source claimed Jamal
Khashoggi was killed at his country’s consulate in Istanbul.

The Washington Post contributor, 59, vanished after an appointment with
Saudi officials on Tuesday.

A Turkish government source said late Saturday that police believed
Khashoggi was killed at the Istanbul consulate, which Riyadh strongly denied.

Khashoggi had gone to the consulate to obtain documents needed to marry his
Turkish fiancee.

Commenting for the first time on the journalist’s disappearance, Erdogan
refrained from giving credit to assassination claims. He said he would wait
for the outcome of the current investigation before taking a decision.

“I am following the (issue) and we will inform the world whatever the
outcome” of the official probe, which was launched on Saturday, Erdogan said.

“God willing we will not be faced with a situation we do not want,” the
president told reporters in Ankara.

He said police were examining CCTV footage of entrances and exits at the
consulate and Istanbul airport.

Police said earlier that around 15 Saudis, including officials, arrived in
Istanbul on two flights on Tuesday and were at the consulate at the same time
as Khashoggi.

“Based on their initial findings, the police believe that the journalist
was killed by a team especially sent to Istanbul and who left the same day,”
the government source told AFP on Saturday.

The journalist went to the building but “did not come back out”, police
were quoted as saying by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

– ‘Baseless’ claims –

The consulate rejected the claims that the journalist was killed there as
“baseless”, in a Twitter message.

It said a Saudi team was in Turkey to investigate the disappearance.

The journalist’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said on Twitter she was “waiting
for an official confirmation from the Turkish government to believe” the
claims.

In his newspaper columns, Khashoggi has been critical of some of Saudi
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s policies and Riyadh’s intervention in the
war in Yemen.

His criticisms appeared in both the Arab and Western press.

The former government adviser, who turns 60 on October 13, has lived in
self-imposed exile in the United States since last year to avoid possible
arrest.

Yasin Aktay, an official in Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP) who was close to the journalist, said Khashoggi had made an appointment
in advance with the consulate and called to check the documents were ready.

“His friends had warned him, ‘Don’t go there, it is not safe,’ but he said
they could not do anything to him in Turkey,” said Aktay.

He added that he still hoped the reports of his friend’s death were untrue.

– ‘Unprecedented crime if true’ –

Prince Mohammed said in an interview published by Bloomberg on Friday that
the journalist had left the consulate and Turkish authorities could search
the building, which is Saudi sovereign territory.

Turkey’s foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned Saudi Arabia’s ambassador
over the issue.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Twitter that if reports of his
death were confirmed, “this would constitute a horrific, utterly deplorable,
and absolutely unacceptable assault on press freedom”.

Fred Hiatt, the director of the Washington Post’s editorial page, said if
the reports were true “it is a monstrous and unfathomable act”.

“Jamal was — or, as we hope, is — a committed, courageous journalist. He
writes out of a sense of love for his country and deep faith in human dignity
and freedom,” Hiatt said in a statement on the US newspaper’s website.

– Fled in 2017 –

Khashoggi fled from Saudi Arabia in September 2017, months after Prince
Mohammed was appointed heir to the throne.

The journalist said he had been banned from writing in the pan-Arab Al-
Hayat newspaper, owned by Saudi prince Khaled bin Sultan al-Saud, over his
defence of the Muslim Brotherhood which Riyadh has blacklisted as a terrorist
organisation.

He has also criticised Saudi Arabia’s role in Yemen, where Riyadh leads a
military coalition fighting alongside the government in its war with Iran-
backed rebels.

Saudi Arabia, which ranks 169th out of 180 on RSF’s World Press Freedom
Index, has launched a modernisation campaign since Prince Mohammed’s
appointment as heir to the throne.

The ultra-conservative kingdom in June lifted a ban on women driving, but
it has drawn heavy criticism for its handling of dissent.

Dozens of dissidents have been arrested including intellectuals and Islamic
preachers.

BSS/AFP/RY/21:05 hrs