ANKARA – Turkish prosecutor has demanded that arrest warrants be issuedagainst two Saudi nationals close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman overthe murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Turkish source close to theinvestigation said Wednesday.
Khashoggi, 59, was killed shortly after entering the Saudi consulate inIstanbul on October 2 to obtain paperwork for his upcoming marriage.
The chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul filed an application Tuesday toobtain the warrants for Ahmad al-Assiri and Saud al-Qahtani, described incourt documents as being “among the planners” of the murder of theWashington Post contributor Khashoggi.
Assiri often sat in during Prince Mohammed’s closed-door meetings withvisiting foreign dignitaries and Qahtani was a key counsellor to the crownprince. Both were sacked after Riyadh admitted Khashoggi was killed in theSaudi consulate.
According to Turkey, a 15-member Saudi team was sent to Istanbul to killKhashoggi.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the order to kill Khashoggicame from the highest levels of the Saudi government, but has insisted itwas not King Salman.
Riyadh has since detained 21 people over the murder. Despite speculationthat the powerful crown prince ordered the hit, the kingdom has stronglydenied he was involved.
But two key US Republican senators said a Tuesday briefing by the CIA’sdirector only strengthened their conviction that Prince Mohammed directedthe murder.
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The Istanbul prosecutor in charge of the investigation said in late Octoberthat the Saudi former insider turned critic was strangled then his body wascut into pieces.
The remains of Khashoggi’s body have not been found.
There has been speculation in pro-government media that his body wasdissolved in acid.
A senior Turkish official Wednesday said the prosecutor’s move “reflectsthe view that the Saudi authorities won’t take formal action against thoseindividuals”.
The official, who did not wish to be named, pointed to the fact that thewording of the prosecutor’s request suggested that the current list wasn’tnecessarily exhaustive, appearing to indicate that more arrest warrantscould be sought.
Amid criticism from Ankara over Saudi Arabia’s lack of cooperation with theTurkish investigation, the official said Riyadh could “address thoseconcerns” over its commitment to probing the murder by extraditing all thesuspects to Turkey. – APP / AFP
