Two members of a Saudi Arabian team sent to Istanbul to help Turkish authorities investigate the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi worked instead to cover up evidence, a Turkish official said Monday.
The official confirmed a report in Turkey’s Sabah newspaper saying that chemicals expert Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were among a team of 11 Saudi investigators sent to Istanbul nine days after Khashoggi was killed.
“We believe that the two individuals came to Turkey for the sole purpose of covering up evidence of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder before the Turkish police were allowed to search the premises,” said the senior official, who asked not to be named, according to AFP.
The two men carried out cleanup operations at the consulate and the consul’s home in Istanbul until Oct. 17 and left the country three days later, he said.
“The fact that a cleanup team was dispatched from Saudi Arabia nine days after the murder suggests that Khashoggi’s slaying was within the knowledge of top Saudi officials,” the official said.
The Washington Post columnist, who was critical of the Saudi government and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, disappeared at the Saudi consulate on Oct. 2.
Saudi officials initially claimed he had left the consulate, then said he died in an unplanned “rogue operation.” The kingdom’s public prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb finally said he was killed in a premeditated attack.
Turkey’s allegation of the deployment of a “cleanup” team came after Yasin Aktay, an adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hinted last week that the body may even have been dissolved in acid.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay told the official Anadolu news agency Monday that “all those reports should be investigated.”
Riyadh says 18 people have been held over Khashoggi’s killing and the head of its human rights commission told a meeting in Geneva on Monday that the kingdom was investigating the case with a view to prosecuting the perpetrators.
Bandar Al Aiban, head of the Saudi government delegation at the first UN review of the kingdom’s record in five years, said King Salman had instructed the Saudi public prosecutor to “proceed with the investigation into this case according to the applicable laws and preparation to reaching all facts and bringing all the perpetrators to justice,” Reuters reported.
Envoys from Australia, Belgium, Canada and Italy joined others calling for a credible and thorough investigation into Khashoggi’s death.
“Reports that the killing was premeditated are deeply alarming,” Australian Ambassador Sally Mansfield told the UN Human Rights Council hearing.
France’s Ambassador Francois Rivasseau called on the Saudis to immediately “halt imprisonment and arbitrary arrests” of journalists and activists, and to guarantee freedom of religion.
On Sunday, Khashoggi’s sons Salah, 35, and Abdullah, 33, demanded the return of his body.
“All what we want right now is to bury him,” Salah Khashoggi told CNN in Washington. “I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon.”
With Post wires
