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ISTANBUL – Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was strangled almost as soon as he entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul a month ago. His body was later dismembered and destroyed, the chief prosecutor in Istanbul said Wednesday, giving the first official explanations of Turkey. of the death of Mr. Khashoggi.
The assassination of Mr. Khashoggi has significantly increased tensions between Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Western intelligence analysts and Turkish officials have claimed that the operation could not have been completed without the consent of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia. Arabia.
Prince Mohammed had sent a prosecutor to Istanbul for talks this week, but Irfan Fidan, chief prosecutor of Istanbul, said in a statement that three days of meetings with his Saudi counterpart had been largely unproductive.
"Despite all our good intentions and efforts to reveal the truth, the meetings did not produce a concrete result," the statement said. Saudi chief prosecutor Saud al-Mujeb left for the airport and was due to return to Saudi Arabia.
Turkish officials had already revealed details of Mr. Khashoggi's death on Oct. 2, including strangulation and dismemberment, but still anonymously and usually through media leaks in the media Turks.
The decision to publish information about Khashoggi's death was an indication of Turkey's frustration with the Saudis' inability to answer three key questions: Where was Mr. Khashoggi's body? Have Saudi investigators discovered evidence of premeditation? Who was the "local collaborator" who would have eliminated his remains?
The questions were asked and submitted in writing at consecutive meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Fidan's statement, noting that "an answer was expected". Instead, the Turkish prosecutor was invited to visit Saudi Arabia with his testimony and his conduct. joint interrogations of the 18 Saudis who were arrested in connection with the murder.
This response led Mr. Fidan to publicly announce Turkey's findings on the cause of death.
His statement stated that the Turkish government was obliged to share details with the public in light of "the enormity of the event". The investigation would continue "in all its dimensions and depth," the statement said.
The statement, which was distributed to Turkish news channels and read by reporters on live television, indicates that Mr. Khashoggi died of suffocation, his body was dismembered and completely destroyed. There is no reference to an audio recording alleged to have been played for the CIA radio director, Gina Haspel, who describes the macabre nature of Mr. Khashoggi's death.
Mr. Khashoggi, a Washington Post editorialist, had joined the Saudi Arabian consulate to obtain the document required for his wedding the next day.
No bodies were found and the Turkish authorities repeatedly asked the Saudi authorities to reveal the location of his remains and to help the Saudis conceal the murder. The Saudi Foreign Minister said a "local collaborator" was involved in managing the disposition of Mr. Khashoggi's body, but Saudi officials have disavowed this claim ever since, said Fidan's statement.
After initially claiming that Mr. Khashoggi had left the consulate and that they did not know where he was, the Saudis then acknowledged that he had died inside the consulate. but only in the hands of a group of "dishonest killers" during one operation went wrong.
The Saudis changed course again last week as the country's attorney general admitted that the killing had been "premeditated", citing new information from the Turkish authorities.
