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Saudi Arabia said Thursday the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi appeared to have been premeditated, based on information from Turkey, backing away from an earlier claim that he was killed in a brawl.
It was the latest twist in the shifting official narrative of the October 2 killing inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, which US President Donald Trump has derided as “one of the worst cover-ups” in history.
Saudi Arabia has sought to draw a line under the crisis, and a rights group said Thursday that authorities had allowed Khashoggi’s eldest son Salah and his family to leave the country after lifting a travel ban.
But the kingdom still faces mounting pressure from sceptical world powers demanding answers and to know the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s body.
The Saudi public prosecutor said he was making the latest badessment on the basis of evidence supplied by Turkey, which has been the source of a series of grisly revelations about the government critic’s death.
Criticism over Saudi Arabia’s explanation of how Jamal Khashoggi died is growing.
AAP
After first insisting Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed, Saudi authorities said he was killed in an argument that degenerated into a brawl before finally accepting what Turkey had said virtually from the start – that he was killed in a premeditated hit.
“Information from the Turkish authorities indicates that the act of the suspects in the Khashoggi case was premeditated,” the office of public prosecutor Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said in a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
“The public prosecution continues its investigation with suspects… to complete the course of justice.”
As the Saudi public prosecutor made the new admission on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Riyadh still needed to provide answers to remaining questions, such as who ordered the hit and what happened to Khashoggi’s body.
“Where is (the body)? You admit they did it, but why are they not saying (where)?” Cavusoglu said at a press conference in Ankara.
“His family also wants to know and pay their final tribute.”
Slow drip of admissions
The slow drip of Saudi admissions cast a pall over a showcase three-day investment forum that ended on Thursday, with organisers putting a brave face on the array of no-shows among big-name guests.
The Saudi energy minister said foreign companies which boycotted the Future Investment Forum (FII) had “apologised” and vowed a return to normal ties.
“Some companies abstained from the conference due to political pressure as a result of an odious campaign directed from outside the kingdom which has failed,” Khalid al-Falih told state-run Al-Ekhbariya news channel.
“All the companies that abstained have been calling us during the past 48 hours to apologise and express regret,” and vowed to open offices and restore normal relations, Falih said.
The investment conference, dubbed “Davos in the desert”, aimed at drawing foreign investors to help Riyadh diversify its oil-reliant economy.
A long list of investors and international policymakers declined to show up in Riyadh amid growing international outrage over the Khashoggi murder.
Siemens chief executive Joe Kaeser, corporate chiefs from JP Morgan, Ford and Uber, and media powerhouses like CNN and the Financial Times all scrapped plans to attend.
Ministers from Britain, France and the United States also stayed away.
Travel ban lifted
In his first public comments on the case on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman denounced the “repulsive” murder and pledged that “justice will prevail”.
The departure of Khashoggi’s son, Salah, comes after Saudi King Salman and the crown prince met him and the slain journalist’s brother Sahel at the royal palace in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Saudi state media said they offered their condolences to the family, but pictures of the prince shaking hands with Salah went viral on social media, where rights activists demanded the immediate lifting of the travel ban.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi officials, but Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson told AFP they were apparently allowed to leave after the ban was lifted.
Salah, a dual US-Saudi citizen, will be joined in the United States by his other siblings who are based there, friends of the family told AFP.
“Jamal’s family needs a place to be together where they feel safe to mourn their beloved one,” said Randa Slim, director of conflict resolution at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, who knew the slain journalist personally.
“It is tragic that it took his death to get the Saudi authorities to grant them the freedom to travel,” Slim told AFP.
An official in Washington said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had “raised the safety and security of the Khashoggi family members with the Saudi leadership”, but declined to discuss the specifics of Salah’s travel.
A call for justice
Supporters, friends and relatives of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Thursday held a candlelight vigil outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to demand justice for his “barbaric” murder.
Protestors hold a vigil for Jamal Khashoggi in front of Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
AAP
They chose the consulate, where the 59-year-old Washington Post contributor was killed on October 2, to hold the first gathering of the newly-formed Jamal Khashoggi Friends Association.
“From this place where Jamal lost his life, we clearly state that we will not accept compromises in the case of his murder,” said a statement from the group, read by Ayman Nour, the Egyptian chief of opposition broadcaster El-Sharq.
“We will follow all legitimate means to achieve full justice for Jamal, so as not to wake up to another murdered journalist,” the statement said.
The murder has sparked an international crisis for Saudi Arabia, whose official narrative changed again on Thursday, when a Saudi public prosecutor admitted the murder appeared to have been premeditated.
After first insisting Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed, Saudi authorities said he was killed in an argument that degenerated into a brawl, then admitted he was murdered before finally accepting what Turkey had said earlier – that he was killed in a premeditated hit.
“Every day more truth is revealed related to the murder,” the Jamal Khashoggi Friends Association said.
During the vigil, a friend of Khashoggi and advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Yasin Aktay, said that “no one can sweep this affair under the rug”.
“I could not save Jamal,” he said, adding that the murder was a “barbaric act… unthinkable in the 21st century”.
“The current scandal must make them regret the moment when the idea (of the murder) came to their minds.”
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