Canada concerned over reports Saudi journalist killed
- by Cecilia Wilkerson
- in World News
- — Oct 10, 2018
Saudi Arabian officials invited Turkish experts and related officials to visit its consulate in Istanbul, the Anadolu Agency reported on Tuesday, following the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi a week ago.
Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen who had lived in Washington for the past year, has not been heard from or seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday, his fiancée and friends have said.
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. "We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate", one of two Turkish officials told Reuters Saturday.
The search will take place as part of the official investigation, which was being conducted "in an intense manner", he said without giving any date. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said in a string of tweets Monday that "if there is any truth to the allegations of wrongdoing by the Saudi government it would be devastating to the US-Saudi relationship and there will be a heavy price to be paid - economically and otherwise". A search would be an extraordinary development, as embassies and consulates under the Vienna Convention are technically foreign soil and must be protected by host nations.
He was thrust into the spotlight again in May 2018 when Human Rights Watch said at least 11 women rights activists were arrested - just a month before the ban on women was to be officially lifted. His fiancee and friends have said he did not leave the building. "It has to prove that Jamal wasn't oppressed at the consulate and that he left safely".
"We are ready to welcome the Turkish government to go and search our premises", he said, adding that "we will allow them to enter and search and do whatever they want to do...." Their ambassador to the USA insists that he personally had a friendly relationship with Khashoggi and remained in contact whenever both of them were in Washington.
It's unclear which camera the footage came from or who operated it.
But Turkish police allege Mr Khashoggi was tortured and killed by a team flown in from the kingdom.
The Council of Ministers on Tuesday highly appreciated the Kingdom's wise policies articulated by Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, during his recent interview with Bloomberg.
Khashoggi, a Saudi writer and critic of the kingdom's leadership, was last seen entering the consulate in Istanbul's Levent district on October 2, when he arrived to retrieve an administrative document. His foreign policy moves have been extremely aggressive, including his military support of the government in Yemen against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and nearly going to war with Qatar due to their support of the Iranian regime. He also reiterated that Khashoggi had left the building.
"Do you not have cameras and everything of the sort?" "Why don't you prove it, you have to prove it". "You need to prove it".
On Monday, a Turkish official also said Saudi Arabia's envoy to Ankara had been summoned to the foreign ministry for a second time on Sunday and had been asked by Turkish diplomats to be "in full coordination" on the matter.
Both planes' final destination was the Saudi capital of Riyadh. Turkey sent food to Qatar and deployed troops at its military base there.
Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen, has been living in exile in the United States to avoid arrest. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had seen conflicting reports on the safety and whereabouts of Khashoggi.
