A Saudi official enters the door of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 7, 2018. AFP
ISTANBUL: The head of a group representing Turkish-Arab journalists said Sunday that they were in possession of evidence that shows the missing Saudi journalist was murdered.
Speaking to journalists in front of the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul, Turan Kislakci -- head of the Turkish-Arab Media Association (TAM) -- said they were informed that Jamal Khashoggi was "brutally murdered”.
The journalist and regular columnist for the Washington Post has been missing since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
Kislakci said they received the news two days ago but had waited for confirmation.
"We got the confirmation of the information yesterday [on Saturday]. It is true that Jamal Khashoggi was murdered.
"A second account says that he was murdered very brutally,” he said without specifying what or how the association came across the information.
The Consulate of Saudi Arabia has denied the claims, focusing namely on a Reuters report on its Twitter account.
"An official source at the consulate has denied accusations reported by Reuters, attributed to Turkish officials statements, that Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul," said the Saudi consulate on its Twitter account.
Saudi police officers came to the consulate building on Sunday, and stayed inside for two hours, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent on the ground.
Khashoggi is known to have been critical of Saudi domestic and foreign policies.
The Turkish police in Istanbul has been keeping an eye on the comings and goings at the Saudi consulate since the time -- according to the journalist’s fiancee -- Khashoggi entered the building.
The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul initiated an investigation on the day of the incident while the consulate also said on Twitter that it was working in coordination with Turkish authorities.
Bloomberg adds: Turkey’s president said he’s personally involved in the case of Khashoggi and is holding out hope for him, even though another official said the Washington Post columnist was killed inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
"As president, I am pursuing,” Erdogan said Sunday in televised comments in Ankara. "We’re waiting for the prosecutor’s statement. My expectation is still well-meant. I hope we won’t encounter an undesirable situation.”
The political fallout over Khashoggi may further strain ties between Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Khashoggi’s disappearance comes at time that U.S. President Donald Trump has heaped particular pressure on Saudi Arabia to do more to ease oil prices. If he was murdered as alleged by the Turkish official, it may cause additional tensions with the U.S. Senate.
"I pray Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is alive,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said Sunday on Twitter. "But if this deeply disturbing news report is confirmed, the United States & the civilized world must respond strongly, and I will review all options in Senate.”
Khashoggi, who had been living in self-imposed exile for the past year, disappeared on Oct. 2, after he entered the consulate to obtain a document. His fiancee and friends initially said they feared he was detained or kidnapped for his criticism of the Saudi government.
Speaking to Bloomberg earlier Sunday, a Turkish government official said Khashoggi was believed to have been killed inside the building. The official asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman told Bloomberg in an interview on Wednesday that Khashoggi had left the building shortly after entering it and that he was ready to allow Turkey to search the consulate. The 33-year-old heir to the Saudi throne said he wasn’t aware of Khashoggi’s whereabouts.
Khashoggi’s alleged murder is believed to have been premeditated and carried out by a team of 15 people flown in from the kingdom, the Turkish official said, without providing evidence. The details were also reported by Reuters and the Washington Post.
An official at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul "strongly denounced these baseless allegations,” according to an emailed statement. A Saudi delegation has been sent to Turkey to assist "in the investigations regarding the disappearance of the Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi,” according to the statement.
Speculation that Khashoggi was detained focused new attention on what critics say is a broad crackdown on dissent under Prince Mohammed that has coincided with his attempts to loosen social restrictions and create a more dynamic economy less reliant on oil. The government has arrested dozens of clerics, academics, writers, businessmen and journalists from across the spectrum of Saudi society.
"The Gulf Kingdom routinely uses draconian laws to crack down on peaceful dissent at home, and has even arrested dissidents abroad in the past,” human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement. "But the enforced disappearance - and now reported assassination - of one of its citizens who had sought asylum abroad should set alarm bells ringing.”
Prince Mohammed used the interview with Bloomberg to defend actions that have tarnished his reputation abroad as a man trying to overhaul one of the world’s last remaining absolute monarchies. He said the arrests of clerics, women activists and some businessmen over the past year were a small price to pay for peacefully eradicating extremism in the world’s top oil exporter.
Ali Shihabi, head of the Arabia Foundation, a pro-Saudi think tank in the U.S., said Erdogan’s ruling AKP party should not be in charge of any investigation into Khashoggi’s fate.
"If Jamal is still missing or God forbid dead, then the judgment should be left to an independent investigation carried out by a credible international party,” he said on Twitter. "The Turks are not a neutral party. ”
Erdogan said said police were examining CCTV footage of entrances and exits at the consulate and Istanbul airport.
The consulate rejected the claims that the journalist was killed there as "baseless", in a Twitter message. It said a Saudi team was in Turkey to investigate the disappearance.
The journalist's fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said on Twitter she was "waiting for an official confirmation from the Turkish government" before she could believe the claims.
His criticisms appeared in both the Arab and Western press.
The former government adviser, who turns 60 on October 13, has lived in the United States since last year to avoid possible arrest.
Yasin Aktay, an official in Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) who was close to the journalist, said Khashoggi had made an appointment in advance with the consulate and called to check the documents were ready.
"His friends had warned him, 'Don't go there, it is not safe,' but he said they could not do anything to him in Turkey," said Aktay.
He added that he still hoped the reports of his friend's death were untrue.
'Assault on press freedom'
Prince Mohammed said in an interview published by Bloomberg on Friday that the journalist had left the consulate and Turkish authorities could search the building, which is Saudi sovereign territory.
Turkey's foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned Saudi Arabia's ambassador over the issue.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Twitter that if reports of his death were confirmed, "this would constitute a horrific, utterly deplorable, and absolutely unacceptable assault on press freedom".
Fred Hiatt, the director of the Washington Post's editorial page, said if the reports were true "it is a monstrous and unfathomable act".
"Jamal was -- or, as we hope, is -- a committed, courageous journalist. He writes out of a sense of love for his country and deep faith in human dignity and freedom," Hiatt said in a statement on the US newspaper's website.
A European Commission spokesperson said in a statement that Brussels was "closely" following the case, adding it was "awaiting clarifications from the Saudi authorities on the fate of Mr Khashoggi."
Khashoggi fled from Saudi Arabia in September 2017, months after Prince Mohammed was appointed heir to the throne.
The journalist said he had been banned from writing in the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper, owned by Saudi prince Khaled bin Sultan al-Saud, over his defence of the Muslim Brotherhood which Riyadh has blacklisted as a terrorist organisation.
He has also criticised Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen, where Riyadh leads a military coalition fighting alongside the government in its war with Iran-backed rebels.
Saudi Arabia, which ranks 169th out of 180 on RSF's World Press Freedom Index, has launched a modernisation campaign since Prince Mohammed's appointment as heir to the throne.
The ultra-conservative kingdom in June lifted a ban on women driving, but it has drawn heavy criticism for its handling of dissent.
Dozens of dissidents have been arrested including intellectuals and Islamic preachers.
Canada expressed concern Sunday over reports that Khashoggi was murdered in his country's consulate in Istanbul.
"We are aware of and concerned by these reports. Canadian officials are actively seeking more information," Adam Austen, a spokesman for Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia have been tense in recent months.
After Canada criticized Saudi arrest of human rights activists, the kingdom retaliated by expelling the Canadian ambassador, recalling its own envoy to Ottawa and freezing trade and investment between the two countries.
