Riyadh
The announcement, which came in a tweet from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, said that an initial investigation by the government’s general prosecutor found that the Saudi journalist had been in discussions with people inside the consulate when a quarrel broke out and escalated to a fatal fistfight.
The Saudi government said it fired five top officials and arrested 18 other Saudis as a result of the initial investigation. Those fired included Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s adviser Saud al-Qahtani and Deputy Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri.
The announcement marks the first time that Saudi officials have acknowledged that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate. Ever since he disappeared on Oct. 2 while visiting the mission, Saudi officials repeatedly have said that he left the consulate alive and that they had no information on his whereabouts or fate. He had gone to the consulate to obtain a document he needed for his upcoming marriage.
The Saudi statement comes as the kingdom is facing unprecedented political and economic pressure to disclose what happened to Khashoggi, a critic of the government and a contributing columnist to The Washington Post. But it is unclear whether the Saudi explanation — which clashes with details provided by Turkish investigators and makes no mention of the crown prince — will be enough to satisfy foreign leaders, global business executives and U.S. lawmakers pressing for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
Turkish investigators had concluded days ago that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by a Saudi team dispatched to Istanbul. U.S. officials have said that Turkey has audio and video recordings providing evidence that the journalist was interrogated and killed and his body was cut into several pieces.
Khashoggi’s body has not been recovered, and the Saudi statement did not address what happened to it.
President Donald Trump said on Friday night that the arrests were a “great first step” but that he wanted to talk further to the Saudis about the investigation. He added that if sanctions were imposed on the Saudis over the killing, he would prefer they didn’t include arms sales.
According to a list confirmed by Turkish officials, 15 Saudis flew to Istanbul on the morning of Oct. 2, participated in an operation that left Khashoggi dead and then quickly left the country.
At least 12 members of that team are connected to Saudi security services, and several have links to Mohammed himself, according to a review of passport records, social media, local media reports and other material.
Those personal connections and U.S. intelligence intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a plan to lure Khashoggi home have contributed to a growing suspicion that the crown prince was personally linked to the incident. But the Saudi statement did not implicate him in the killing.
The preliminary investigation conducted by the prosecutor found that the “suspects” traveled to Istanbul to meet with Khashoggi as he had expressed an interest in returning to Saudi Arabia, the official news agency said. Discussions that took place “developed in a negative way” and “led to a fight and a quarrel between some of them and the citizen,” it said. “The brawl aggravated to lead to his death and their attempt to conceal and cover what happened,” it said.
Investigations are continuing with the 18 detainees, it said, without naming them.
“The Kingdom expresses its deep regret at the painful developments that have taken place and stresses the commitment of the authorities in the Kingdom to bring the facts to the public,” the statement said.
The official Saudi statement said King Salman also ordered the creation of a commission to review and “modernize” the kingdom’s intelligence operations and report back within a month.
In addition to Qahtani and Assiri, the Saudi news agency named several other military officers who had been fired. They included Maj. Gen. Mohammed bin Saleh al-Rumaih, assistant head of the General Intelligence Directorate; Maj. Gen. Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Shaya, head of General Intelligence for Human Resources; and Gen. Rashad bin Hamed al-Mohammad, director of the General Directorate of Security and Protection.
Qahtani has been one of Mohammed’s closest advisers, serving as a strategist and enforcer. He had been referred to in some quarters as the Saudi Stephen Bannon and had created a “blacklist” of online critics of Saudi Arabia. Qahtani had made overtures to Khashoggi and tried to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia this summer, when U.S. intelligence officials said there was an attempt to lure him back to the kingdom to detain him.
“Do you think I can act by myself without taking orders/guidance?” Qahtani said last year in a tweet that is being widely shared now after the announcement of his firing. “I am an employee and a trustworthy executive to the orders of the king and the crown prince.”
Assiri, who also has been close to the crown prince, served for two years as the public face of Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in the war in Yemen before his intelligence posting.
Assiri, who speaks fluent French and English, held regular news briefings on the state of the battle that were unusual for the Middle East and appeared designed to promote the professionalism of the Saudi war effort.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement acknowledging the Saudi announcement that the investigation was progressing and that action had been taken against suspects.
“We will continue to closely follow the international investigations into this tragic incident and advocate for justice that is timely, transparent, and in accordance with all due process. We are saddened to hear confirmation of Mr. Khashoggi’s death, and we offer our deepest condolences to his family, fiancee, and friends,” Sanders said.
Other reaction in Washington was more negative.
“To say that I am skeptical of the new Saudi narrative about Mr. Khashoggi is an understatement,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tweeted. “First we were told Mr. Khashoggi supposedly left the consulate and there was blanket denial of any Saudi involvement. Now, a fight breaks out and he’s killed in the consulate, all without knowledge of Crown Prince.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., also was dismissive of the Saudi account.
“If ever a story reeked of a coverup, it is this one. It has been unraveling since it began,” Leahy said in a Friday night news release. “It’s taken nearly three weeks for the Saudis to even admit that an American resident and journalist died in the Saudis’ own consulate. … Our country must not be complicit in this coverup.”