US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled the minute he stepped inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and his body was then hacked to bits and secretly disposed of, a top Turkish prosecutor said Wednesday.
A statement from chief Istanbul prosecutor Irfan Fidan’s office also said that talks with Saudi chief prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb had yielded no “concrete results” despite “good-willed efforts” by Turkey to uncover the truth about his brutal killing.
The statement was the first public confirmation by a Turkish official that Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered after he entered the Saudi consulate on Oct. 2 to collect paperwork needed to marry his Turkish fiancee.
The announcement came as al-Mojeb ended a three-day visit to Istanbul during which he held talks with Fidan and other Turkish officials about the murder plot, which the Saudis first flatly denied before offering a number of false versions of the events that resulted in his death.
President Trump also bought into the Saudis’ denial before new evidence emerged, and has argued against canceling lucrative weapons deals with the kingdom despite the human rights atrocity.
Turkey wants to extradite 18 Saudi suspects detained in Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s murder.
It is also pressing Saudi Arabia for information concerning Khashoggi’s remains, which still haven’t been found, as well as who ordered the journalist’s slaying.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also called on Riyadh to disclose the identity of an alleged local collaborator said to have been involved in disposing of Khashoggi’s dismembered body.
Khashoggi, a 59-year-old columnist for the Washington Post, vanished after entering the consulate to pick up paperwork for his upcoming marriage to his fiancee, who was waiting for him outside.
A critic of the Saudi royal family, Khashoggi had been living in exile in the United States.
Turkey alleges a hit squad from Saudi Arabia — including a member of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s entourage during a trip to the United States — traveled to Istanbul to kill the journalist and then tried to cover it up.
Under mounting pressure, Saudi Arabia changed its narrative about Khashoggi’s killing several times, eventually admitting that he died inside the consulate and only recently acknowledging that Turkish evidence shows his killing was premeditated.
Saudi Arabia has not commented on the prosecutor’s visit, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.
With AP