ISTANBUL – Turkey on Monday said that the murder of Jamal Khashoggi insidethe Saudi consulate in Istanbul was “savagely planned” as pro-governmentmedia published new claims targeting powerful Crown Prince Mohammed binSalman over the killing.
Upping the pressure on Riyadh, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed toreveal the “naked truth” on Tuesday about the Khashoggi case.
The Washington Post contributor, 59, was murdered almost three weeks agoafter stepping inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
After over two weeks of near silence, Saudi Arabia finally admittedKhashoggi was killed in the consulate but the kingdom s explanations areseen by friends and foes alike as contradictory and evasive.
The case has shone the spotlight on Crown Prince Mohammed. He hasspearheaded a reform drive for the kingdom but now faces a stream ofallegations — denied by Riyadh — that he ordered the killing of Khashoggi.
CNN International broadcast images it said showed a Saudi official playingthe role of a body double for Khashoggi, wearing his clothes while leavingthe consulate in an apparent bid to falsely show the journalist had leftsafely.
US President Donald Trump, who has resisted pressure to curb arms sales toSaudi Arabia, initially said Riyadh s version of events was credible butthen accused the kingdom of lying.——————————
*Enemy of Turkey*——————————
The spokesman of Erdogan s ruling party Omer Celik said the killing “wasplanned in an extremely savage manner”. It was the first officialindication that Ankara believes a murder plan was coordinated inadvance. “We are faced with a situation where there has been a lot ofeffort to whitewash this,” he complained.
One of Erdogan s advisors, Yasin Aktay, wrote in the Yeni Safak daily thatthe Saudi version given so far “feels like our intelligence is beingmocked”.
Turkish pro-government media kept up a steady stream of allegations, whichanalysts see as a tactic to increase the pressure on Riyadh by showing theevidence Turkey possesses.
Yeni Safak said Saudi security official Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, head of ateam of 15 Saudis sent to Istanbul for the task, called the head of PrinceMohammed s office, Bader al-Asaker, “four times after the murder”.
Abdulkadir Selvi, whose Hurriyet newspaper columns are closely watched forindications of Erdogan s thinking, wrote that Khashogghi was slowlystrangled to death for eight minutes and a Saudi forensic specialist thencut his body into 15 pieces while listening to music.
“We cannot close this file until the crown prince is brought to account andremoved from his post. For 50 years we cannot live with a crown prince whois an enemy of Turkey,” said Selvi.
Meanwhile with Khashoggi s remains still missing, Turkish police found anabandoned car belonging to the Saudi consulate in an underground car parkin the Sultangazi district of Istanbul, state media said.——————————
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*Naked truth*——————————
Erdogan has stopped short of directly pointing the finger at Riyadh.Analysts say he preferred to authorise the leak of incriminatinginformation to pro-government media to pressure the kingdom.
He has twice held telephone talks with King Salman on the crisis, with someanalysts arguing Erdogan was seeking to preserve Turkish-Saudi relationsthrough the ageing monarch while sidelining his headstrong son PrinceMohammed.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, the smooth former envoy toWashington and fluent English speaker, on Sunday appeared on Fox News toblame a “rogue operation” by individuals who “exceeded theirresponsibilities” and then “tried to cover up for it”.
“We are determined to find out all the facts. And we are determined topunish those who are responsible for this murder,” he said, denying anylink to the crown prince.
Saudi s official news agency said both King Salman and Prince Mohammed hadphoned Khashoggi s son Salah to express their condolences.——————————
*Saudi investment summit hit*——————————
Khashoggi went to the consulate on October 2 to get documents for hiswedding to his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. She has now been given24-hour protection, according to Turkish state media.
The timing of the controversy could not be worse for the crown prince as heprepares to host a key investment summit on Tuesday, overshadowed by bigname cancellations.
Dozens of executives from bankers Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan toride-hailing app Uber to Western leaders like International Monetary Fundchief Christine Lagarde have pulled out of the three-day Future InvestmentInitiative (FII), dubbed “Davos in the desert”.
Meanwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin would not export armsto Riyadh “in the current situation”, despite Germany s approval last monthof 416 million euros ($480 million) worth of arms exports to Saudi Arabiafor 2018.
German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier on Monday urged European nations totake a joint stance on whether to halt arms exports to Saudi Arabia. APP/AFP
