Istanbul
The Saudi explanation — that an argument in the consulate led to a fatal brawl — is at odds with the conclusions of Turkish investigators, who believe that Khashoggi was killed deliberately by Saudi agents who had been dispatched to Istanbul for the purpose. Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, was a prominent critic of the Saudi leadership.
“We don’t blame anyone in advance, but we do not consent to this being covered up,” said the ruling-party spokesman, Omer Celik, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency.
As Saudi Arabia’s closest Arab allies rushed to its defense on Saturday, the results of the Saudi investigation were being greeted with skepticism or derision by others, including several U.S. lawmakers and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But Turkey’s reaction is being especially closely watched, because Turkish authorities are said to possess evidence, including audio recordings, that could reveal exactly how Khashoggi died. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government so far has refused to publicly share that evidence, possibly to protect Turkish surveillance methods but also, analysts said, to preserve a measure of leverage over the Saudis and the Trump administration, which has tried to protect its Saudi allies.
Khashoggi, a resident of Virginia, vanished on the afternoon of Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi Consulate to obtain documents that he needed to remarry.
For more than two weeks, Saudi Arabia denied any knowledge of his whereabouts and insisted that he had walked out of the consulate unharmed. The journalist’s disappearance and slaying have sparked an international outcry as well as intense criticism of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, tarnishing his image in the West as a reformer.
Early Saturday, the Saudi government acknowledged for the first time that Khashoggi was dead. Saudi authorities said they had fired five top officials and arrested 18 other Saudi nationals as a result of the preliminary investigation. Two of Mohammed’s close advisers were among those fired.
In a possible attempt to derail Turkey’s ongoing criminal investigation, Saudi Arabia’s justice minister, Walid bin Mohammed al-Samaani, said on Saturday that Saudi courts had jurisdiction over the case because it occurred in a Saudi consulate, which “falls within the sovereignty of the Kingdom,” according to a statement posted on the official Saudi Press Agency.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday afternoon that he would be speaking with the crown prince very soon and is considering placing sanctions on Saudi Arabia, though preferably not on U.S. sales of arms and other military equipment. “That would hurt us far more” than it would harm the Saudis, Trump said.
He said no one in his administration had heard audio or seen video of what transpired in the Saudi Consulate or had reviewed transcripts of any recordings. “I’m not satisfied until we find the answer,” he said, referring to how Khashoggi died.
Trump appeared initially to accept the Saudi explanation, but U.S. lawmakers, intelligence officials and foreign policy experts quickly accused the government in Riyadh of a cover-up.
“This is an admission of guilt, but the Saudis still aren’t coming clean with the truth,” Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “The Saudis’ latest version of events still isn’t credible, and the Trump administration must not be complicit in allowing them to sweep this under the rug.”
Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Saudi version of events changes “with each passing day, so we should not assume their latest story holds water.”
Other nations also expressed criticism.
Merkel and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas issued a statement, according to Reuters, saying: “We expect transparency from Saudi Arabia about the circumstances of his death. … The information available about events in Istanbul is inadequate.”
“The Spanish government is dismayed by early reports from the Saudi prosecutor about the death of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the Spanish government said in a statement, according to Reuters.