Press freedom groups urge Saudi Arabia to account for Jamal Khashoggi’s whereabouts amid claims he was murdered

ISTANBUL — Rights groups and press freedom advocates have called on Saudi Arabia to immediately account for the whereabouts of prominent Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, following reports that Turkish investigators believed he was murdered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last week.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, a press freedom organization, said that Saudi authorities “must immediately give a full and credible account of what happened to Khashoggi inside its diplomatic mission.”

The Post reported Saturday that Turkey had concluded Khashoggi, a recent critic of the desert kingdom’s leadership, was killed by a Saudi team specifically sent to Istanbul for the murder, according to two people with knowledge of the investigation. They offered no evidence to support the theory, and Turkey’s government has not officially announced any conclusions from the investigation.

If confirmed, Khashoggi’s murder would “constitute a horrific, utterly deplorable, and absolutely unacceptable assault on press freedom,” the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said on Twitter.

PEN America, which promotes free expression around the world, also called on Saudi authorities to produce Khashoggi immediately if they “wish to counter these claims.”

Early Sunday, official Saudi Press Agency released a statement saying that an unidentified official at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul had dismissed the reports that Khashoggi was killed there.

He first visited the consulate on Sept. 28 to obtain a document related to his upcoming wedding, according to his fiancee and friends. He returned to the consulate Tuesday, at about 1:30 p.m., concerned that he might not be allowed to leave, his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said.

Khashoggi, who contributed to The Washington Post’s Global Opinions section, left his phone with her, along with instructions that she should call a member of Turkey’s governing party if he did not emerge. After waiting more than four hours, Cengiz called the police, she said.

“The official strongly denounced these baseless allegations, and expressed doubt that they came from Turkish officials that are informed of the investigation or are authorized to comment on the issue,” the statement from the Saudi Press Agency says, in part.

It goes on to say that a “security delegation of Saudi investigators” arrived in Istanbul on Saturday, and that they were there to assist in investigating Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Turkish investigators believe a 15-member team “came from Saudi Arabia. It was a preplanned murder,” said one of the people briefed on the matter. Both people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

A U.S. official said Turkish government officials have concluded that Khashoggi was likely killed inside the consulate by a team that flew in with two private jets. Turkish officials further concluded that his body was probably dismembered, and removed in boxes and flown out of the country.

Turkey’s Anadolu news agency reported Saturday that the Istanbul public prosecutor’s office had opened a probe into Khashoggi’s disappearance. Turkish authorities have said that Khashoggi never left the consulate.

“His entry has been determined but his exit has not been determined. These are the facts,” Yasin Aktay, vice chairman of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, told CNN Turk on Sunday.

He said that Saudi officials say Khashoggi left the consulate, “but there is no record in the video footage.”

The conflicting accounts appeared certain to deepen a rift between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, both regional powers that have competed for influence in the region.

The killing, if confirmed, would mark a startling escalation of Saudi Arabia’s effort to silence dissent. Under direction from the crown prince, Saudi authorities have carried out hundreds of arrests under the banner of national security, rounding up clerics, business executives and even women’s rights advocates.

Khashoggi may have been considered especially dangerous by the Saudi leadership, analysts said. His criticisms of the royal family and its vast powers were delivered from his self-imposed exile in the United States and could not be dismissed as the complaints of a longtime dissident.

Rather, he has long been a pillar of the Saudi establishment who was close to its ruling circles for decades, had worked as an editor at Saudi news outlets and had been an adviser to a former Saudi intelligence chief.

In an interview with Bloomberg News last week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Khashoggi had left the consulate shortly after he arrived Tuesday. Saudi officials have yet to provide any evidence for that assertion.

The Saudi consul-general in Istanbul allowed reporters from the Reuters news agency to tour the consulate Saturday, to show that Khashoggi was not inside.

“I would like to confirm that . . . Jamal is not at the consulate nor in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the consulate and the embassy are working to search for him,” the consul-general, Mohammed al-Otaibi, was quoted as saying.

The United States is aware of The Post report but cannot confirm it, and does not know where Khashoggi is, a senior U.S. official said Saturday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the case on the record.

U.S. officials did not immediately comment on the Turkish conclusions.

Zeynep Karatas in Istanbul and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

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