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ANKARA, Turkey – A pro-government Turkish newspaper published on Wednesday a macabre account of the alleged assassination of the Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, just as the top American diplomat arrived in the country to discuss the disappearance of the Washington Post columnist. Yeni Safak's report adds to the growing pressure exerted on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to Khashoggi, who disappeared on October 2 while he was going to the consulate to retrieve the documents he had need to get married.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters, before leaving on Wednesday, that Saudi leaders, including King Salman and his son, 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, "were no exception. as regards their responsibilities. "
"They pledged to hold anyone involved in wrongdoing to be held accountable, that it is a senior officer or officer," said Pompeo. But he admitted to having learned very little about the case of the missing journalist during his meetings in Riyadh.
"I do not want to talk about any of the facts," Pompeo told reporters. "They did not want either, and they wanted the opportunity to carry out this investigation thoroughly." The top American diplomat said he felt it was "a reasonable thing to give them this opportunity, then we will all have to judge, we will all have the opportunity to evaluate this work."
No major decision was made by the Al Saud family in power, in the ultra-conservative realm. Khashoggi had fled the country last year because of the rise of Prince Mohammed, for whom he wrote critically in The Post.
The newspaper Yeni Safak quotes what he describes as an audio recording of the Khashoggi massacre, which shows that the author was tortured. CBS News has not been able to verify the information published by the newspaper, which is close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The newspaper said that Saudi Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi could be heard on the tape, telling those who allegedly tortured Khashoggi: "Do it outside, you'll get me into trouble."
According to the newspaper, one of the Saudis who allegedly tortured Khashoggi replied: "Shut up if you want to live when you return to Saudi Arabia."
Al-Otaibi left Turkey on Tuesday afternoon, Turkish media reported, as a search by Turkish investigators in his residence in Istanbul was reportedly delayed by Saudi officials who reportedly failed to give official permission. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told the Anadolu government agency on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia had "accepted" a request for a search of the official residence but had not yet given its final agreement.
Soylu said: "As soon as (Saudi Arabia) has given its consent, steps will be taken to conduct an investigation."
Turkish security services have used pro-government media to divulge alleged information about Khashoggi's case, putting pressure on the kingdom.
American reaction
President Donald Trump, who had previously warned of "severe punishment" if the kingdom was found guilty of Khashoggi's disappearance, criticized the charges against him and compared to the charges of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh, currently a Supreme Court justice, at his confirmation hearing.
"Here we go again with your guilt until proven otherwise," Mr. Trump told the AP during an interview.
Commander Garrett, White House correspondent at CBS News, said that President Trump has so far given the Saudis the benefit of the doubt and that he has taken no visible action to seek Tangible evidence of possible assassination in their consulate in Istanbul.
The administration continues to adhere to the Saudi calendar and the kingdom's approach to fact-finding, instead of demanding the involvement of the government. US investigators or support the Khashoggi family's request to open an international investigation. This clearly leaves the impression, according to Garrett, that the White House is working hard to respond to Saudi Arabia's demands to explain what many fear is a flagrant violation of human rights.
Trump's attitude, however, does not seem to be shared by Congress, a reputed Republican senator said he believed the crown prince, known as the MBS, had Khashoggi assassinated.
"This guy has to leaveSaid Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, on Fox TV. "In Saudi Arabia, if you listen, you can pick a lot of good people, but MBS has soiled your country and stained it." . "
According to Pamela Falk of CBS News, the White House – and the US Congress – have more power than ever to act against a rogue state or an entity deemed to be guilty of human rights violations.
Congress could block arms sales or suspend military cooperation with Saudi Arabia in Yemen, degrade political relations or combine these measures, thanks to the Magnitsky Law of 2012, which allows the Congress to ask for sanctions that would have been impossible before because of diplomatic immunity.
"Some evidence"
The Washington Post has published scrambled passports of Turkish officials claiming to be members of a 15-member Saudi team allegedly involved in Khashoggi's death. Unverified reports suggest that one member was a forensic pathologist, and the New York Times reports that another has close ties to the Crown Prince.
The Times said it has confirmed, with the help of a facial recognition software, a database of Saudi mobile phone numbers and other means, that the minus nine of the 15 men were working for the Saudi security services, the army or other ministries. A suspect, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, was a diplomat assigned to the Saudi Embassy in London in 2007, according to the Times, citing a list of British diplomats. Mutreb was recently photographed by plane with the Saudi Crown Prince, the Times said. He was also photographed on guard during the Crown Prince's visits to Houston, Boston and the United Nations. Three other suspects, Abdulaziz Mohammed al-Hawsawi, Thaar Ghaleb al-Harbi and Muhammed Saad Alzahrani, were identified by the Times as members of the Saudi Royal Guard or the Crown Prince's personal security team.
According to reports, Khashoggi's body may have been removed from the consulate and kept at the residence of the Saudi consul in Istanbul. CBS News can not verify these claims independently.
On Tuesday, a senior Turkish official told the AP that the police had found "some evidence" of Khashoggi's assassination at the consulate, without further details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
As CBS News correspondent Holly Williams reports, it was only Monday – 13 days after Khashoggi's disappearance – that the Saudis even allowed Turkish investigators to go to the consulate. But that did not stop the smiles – and the laughter – as Pompeo met the crown prince on Monday, who called the two nations "powerful and old allies, so we must face our challenges together."
The police are still planning to search the home of the Saudi consul general, as well as some of the country's diplomatic vehicles, said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. A leaked surveillance video shows that diplomatic cars went to the Consul General soon after Khashoggi went to the consulate.
Earlier Tuesday, Michelle Bachelet, head of human rights in the United States, said that "the inviolability or immunity" of people or premises granted under the Vienna Convention of 1963 on consular relations "should be lifted immediately". This convention covers diplomatic immunity, as well as the idea that embassies and consulates sit on foreign soil in their host country.
"Since there seems to be clear evidence that Mr. Khashoggi entered the consulate and that he has never been seen since, it is up to the Saudi authorities to reveal what happened to him. "said Bachelet.
Nils Melzer, the US special investigator on torture, said that if Turkey and Saudi Arabia could not conduct "a credible and objective investigation", then international involvement might be needed.
Trump's previous warnings about the case sparked a backlash on Sunday from Saudi Arabia and its state-owned media, suggesting that Riyadh could use its production of oil as a weapon. The US president has asked King Salman and OPEC to boost production in order to bring down high oil prices, partly because of the upcoming imposition of oil sanctions on Iran.
An exit?
Pompeo was sent to Saudi Arabia and Turkey on Monday, immediately after President Trump made a phone call with the Saudi king, who reportedly denied knowing Khashoggi's fate.
Addressing reporters after this phone call, Mr Trump offered an explanation to counter the statement by Turkish officials that a team of 15 Saudi agents had arrived at their consulate in Istanbul on October 2 and reportedly killed and dismembered the Saudi writer. They may have been "dishonest killers," suggested Trump.
But after two weeks of categorical denials by the Saudi regime in the disappearance of Khashoggi, two sources close to the kingdom confirmed on Monday to CBS News that the Saudi government was planning to admit that he had been killed, but call it an accident.
Officials told CBS News reporter Kylie Atwood that the Saudi government was supposed to assert that a mission had been approved by the son of King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (often referred to as MBS), for to interrogate Khashoggi without killing him. According to Atwood sources, they will say that the journalist died as a result of an interrogation conducted by Saudi agents.
This could, like Trump's softening comments, seek to give the kingdom a way out of the global storm of criticism of Khashoggi's fate.
