{"id":2115,"date":"2018-10-08T17:46:13","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T17:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=2115"},"modified":"2018-10-08T17:46:13","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T17:46:13","slug":"conflicting-saudi-turkish-claims-on-jamal-khashoggi-whereabouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2018\/10\/08\/conflicting-saudi-turkish-claims-on-jamal-khashoggi-whereabouts\/","title":{"rendered":"Conflicting Saudi, Turkish claims on Jamal Khashoggi whereabouts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Saudi and Turkish officials have made conflicting statements on the whereabouts of a prominent journalist who has reportedly gone missing\u00a0while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Jamal Khashoggi<\/a>, a\u00a0Saudi dissident critical of the country’s crown prince,\u00a0entered the consulate’s premises at around 1pm (10:00 GMT) on Tuesday in what seemed to be a routine visit to sort out paperwork, before disappearing.<\/p>\n

Turkey’s presidential spokesperson said on Wednesday that\u00a0Khashoggi remains inside the Saudi consulate, a day after his fiancee reported he had failed to emerge from a meeting in the mission.<\/p>\n

“According to information we have, this individual who is a Saudi national is still at the consulate as of now,”\u00a0Ibrahim Kalin\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

He also said that Turkish authorities were in contact with Saudi officials and he hoped the situation would be resolved.<\/p>\n

In contrast, a Saudi official quoted by Reuters news agency said the journalist was “not in the consulate nor in Saudi custody”.<\/p>\n

“Mr Khashoggi visited the consulate to request paperwork related to his marital status and exited shortly thereafter,” the official said.<\/p>\n

The US State Department said on Wednesday that it was monitoring and seeking information on Khashoggi’s disappearance.<\/p>\n

“We are closely following reports of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and continue to seek information,” a State Department official said.<\/p>\n

Khashoggi,\u00a0who has been living in self-exile in the United States, is\u00a0a prominent columnist for the Washington Post. He has long criticised the Saudi government’s reform programme under the auspices of Crown Prince\u00a0Mohammed bin Salman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fiancee calls police<\/h2>\n

His fiancee – who requested anonymity –\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the Post she accompanied him but waited outside and called the police when Khashoggi did not emerge after the consulate closed.<\/p>\n

Khashoggi, who once acted as an adviser to the Saudi royal family, fled\u00a0Saudi Arabia<\/a>\u00a0in September of last year amid a crackdown on the kingdom’s intellectuals and journalists.<\/p>\n

He told Al Jazeera’s UpFront in March there was no room left for debate in Saudi Arabia, with citizens rounded up and jailed for questioning the government\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

“As we speak today, there [are] Saudi intellectuals and journalists jailed.<\/p>\n

“Now, nobody will dare to speak and criticise the reforms [initiated by the crown prince],” he said, adding “it would be much better for him to allow a breathing space for critics, for Saudi intellectuals, Saudi writers, Saudi media to debate”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saudi and Turkish officials have made conflicting statements on the whereabouts of a prominent journalist who has reportedly gone missing\u00a0while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Jamal Khashoggi, a\u00a0Saudi dissident critical of the country’s crown prince,\u00a0entered the consulate’s premises at around 1pm (10:00 GMT) on Tuesday in what seemed to be a routine visit to sort out paperwork, before disappearing…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2116,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115\/revisions\/2116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}