Turkey Believes Prominent Saudi Critic Was Killed in Saudi Consulate in Istanbul

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Reporters at the entrance to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Friday.CreditCreditChris Mcgrath/Getty Images

By Carlotta Gall, Ben Hubbard and David D. Kirkpatrick

Oct. 6, 2018

ISTANBUL — Turkish investigators believe a well-known Saudi dissident was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, five people involved in the investigation, or briefed on it, said on Saturday.

The critic of the Saudi government, Jamal Khashoggi, entered the consulate on Tuesday to obtain a document he needed to get married and never emerged, according to his fiancée, who was waiting outside.

Saudi officials have denied that they detained Mr. Khashoggi and have said they do not know where he is. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment on reports that he was dead.

No Turkish officials commented on the record about the findings of the investigation.

Mr. Khashoggi, 59, had worked as an adviser to senior government officials and was also one of Saudi Arabia’s best known journalists. But since going into voluntary exile last year, he has written articles critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s 33-year-old day-to-day ruler.

Since his father became king in 2015, Crown Prince Mohammed has accumulated tremendous power inside the kingdom.

If confirmed, the killing of Mr. Khashoggi in Turkey would mark a brazen violation of international norms and a grave escalation in what critics have called reckless and ruthless efforts by the prince to consolidate power and stamp out dissent at home and abroad.

Despite orchestrating the kidnapping of the Lebanese prime minister, waging a brutal war in Yemen and locking up hundreds of prominent Saudis in a luxury hotel on accusations of corruption, the prince has billed himself as a reformer committed to modernizing the kingdom. Western supporters, including the government of the United States, have embraced his message.

Tawakkol Karman, a Nobel Prize winner, with a poster of Jamal Khashoggi at a protest on Friday.CreditChris McGrath/Getty Images

But Mr. Khashoggi’s death — if confirmed — could change all that.

The Turkish conclusion that Mr. Khashoggi had been killed was described by three people with knowledge of the investigation. Two of the sources were Turkish, and one was a senior official from an Arab government. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

The conclusion was also reported by Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations in Turkey, who was briefed on the findings by a senior Turkish official.

“I am afraid government officials now believe he is dead,” Ms. Aydintasbas said.

Officials do not have hard evidence, she added, but have nevertheless concluded Mr. Khashoggi is dead.

Turan Kislakci, the head of Turkish Arab Media Association, and also a friend of Mr. Khashoggi, told The Times that Turkish officials had called him and confirmed the death

“They confirmed two things, he was killed and his body was dismembered,” Mr. Kislakci said.

Earlier on Saturday, Turkey’s semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported that 15 Saudi citizens, including Saudi diplomats, had arrived in Istanbul on two separate planes and were at the consulate around the same time as Mr. Khashoggi on Tuesday. They later left Turkey for the countries they came from, Anadolu reported.

Two of the sources with knowledge of the investigation said the 15 Saudis had arrived to silence Mr. Khashoggi, but that it was not clear if the plan had been to bring him back to Saudi Arabia alive, and something went wrong, or if the intention was to kill him there.

The Saudi consulate-general in Istanbul, Mohammad al-Otaibi, on Saturday invited Reuters to tour the consulate to show the news organization that Mr. Khashoggi was not there. “I would like to confirm that Jamal is not at the consulate nor in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the consulate and the embassy are working to search for him,” he said. “The idea of kidnapping a Saudi citizen by a diplomatic mission is something that should not be in the media.”

In an interview with The New York Times, Hatice Cengiz, the Turkish fiancé of Mr. Khashoggi, said she was following reports of his death but was waiting for Turkish officials to confirm it with her.

“I cannot think such an incident is acceptable to happen in Turkey,” Ms. Cengiz said.

“If such a thing had happened, Turkey would never keep silent, and Saudi Arabia would never attempt to do such a thing against Turkey,” Ms. Cengiz added. “Turkey would carry this to every kind of international arena, and it is not a country, not a government, that would swallow this. Saudi Arabia would not be able to answer this. Turkey would never accept this. This is impossible to happen in Turkish history.”

Carlotta Gall reported from Istanbul, Ben Hubbard from Beirut and David K. Kirkpatrick from Cambridge, England.