{"id":2348,"date":"2018-11-02T03:12:28","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T03:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=2348"},"modified":"2018-11-02T03:12:28","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T03:12:28","slug":"prosecutor-says-khashoggi-was-strangled-and-dismembered-but-fate-of-body-still-a-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2018\/11\/02\/prosecutor-says-khashoggi-was-strangled-and-dismembered-but-fate-of-body-still-a-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor says Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered, but fate of body still a mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL \u2014<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0Turkey\u2019s top prosecutor on Wednesday laid out the most detailed description yet of how the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed, saying \u00adSaudi agents strangled him almost immediately after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and then dismembered his body.<\/p>\n

But the new information did not address the question that has bedeviled investigators and been the subject of furious speculation: What happened to Khashoggi\u2019s remains?<\/p>\n

A senior Turkish official said in an interview that Turkish authorities are pursuing a theory that Khashoggi\u2019s dismembered body was destroyed in acid on the grounds of the Saudi Consulate or at the nearby residence of the Saudi consul general. Biological evidence discovered in the consulate garden supports the theory that Khashoggi\u2019s body was disposed of close to where he was killed and dismembered, the official said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKhashoggi\u2019s body was not in need of burying,\u201d said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive investigation.<\/p>\n

While Saudi officials now acknowledge that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate on Oct.\u00a02, all they have said about his body is that the assailants gave it to a \u201clocal collaborator\u201d for disposal.<\/p>\n

The senior Turkish official said Turkish investigators do not believe such a figure exists.<\/a><\/p>\n

Since Mojeb arrived in Turkey on Monday, \u201cSaudi officials seemed primarily interested in finding out what evidence the Turkish authorities had against the perpetrators,\u201d the Turkish official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private law enforcement contacts. \u201cWe did not get the impression that they were keen on genuinely cooperating with the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkish prosecutor Irfan Fidan issued his public description of the killing shortly after Mojeb left Istanbul, amid mounting Turkish complaints about a lack of Saudi cooperation.<\/p>\n

Fidan said Khashoggi was \u201cstrangled as soon as he entered the consulate\u201d in line with \u201cpremeditated plans.\u201d The body, \u201cafter being strangled, was subsequently destroyed by being dismembered, once again confirming the planning of the murder,\u201d Fidan said.<\/p>\n

The Turkish statement used the word \u201cbogulmak,\u201d which can also mean suffocation.<\/p>\n

Turkish officials say members of a 15-man hit team dispatched from Saudi Arabia killed Khashoggi inside the consulate before flying out of Turkey later the same day. The Turkish government says it has an audio recording of what transpired inside the mission. Although Turkish officials have played the audio for CIA officials, including Director Gina Haspel, Turkish officials have not released the audio to the public.<\/p>\n

[CIA director briefs president on audio purportedly capturing the killing of Jamal Khashoggi<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has provided shifting explanations about what happened to Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen, contributing columnist to The Washington Post and critic of the Saudi leadership, including the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. For more than two weeks, Saudi authorities repeatedly denied any knowledge of Khashoggi\u2019s whereabouts, then abruptly changed their account, blaming the killing on agents acting outside the Saudi government\u2019s authority.<\/p>\n

Turkish investigators initially focused their search for Khashoggi\u2019s body in two wooded areas outside Istanbul, guided in part by surveillance footage that Turkish authorities said showed Saudi diplomatic vehicles apparently scouting\u00a0Belgrad Forest the night before the journalist was killed.<\/p>\n

Last week, investigators suspended the search, focusing instead on the consulate\u2019s grounds and the consul general\u2019s residence. The search focused in particular on a well on consular property, where the assailants could have disposed of Khashoggi\u2019s dissolved remains, the first senior Turkish official said.<\/p>\n

Investigators last week also inspected the sewer system near the consulate, according to Turkey\u2019s state-run Anadolu news agency.<\/p>\n

Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have repeatedly complained that Saudi Arabia is hampering the investigation by refusing to provide critical pieces of information, including the location of Khashoggi\u2019s body. Turkey has also requested the extradition of 18 suspects who the Saudi government says have been arrested in the case.<\/p>\n

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the suspects will be tried in domestic courts.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a Saudi official said the kingdom had not officially concluded that Khashoggi\u2019s death was premeditated. \u201cThe public prosecutor has acknowledged seeing that information from the Turkish side. We have not said if that is true or not true. We are waiting for the results of the investigation,\u201d the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the media.<\/p>\n

The journalist\u2019s death and the inconsistent Saudi explanations of his killing have unleashed a storm of international criticism, placing President Trump in a difficult situation. In addition to being a major purchaser of American weapons, Saudi Arabia sits at the heart of the administration\u2019s strategy in the Middle East, in particular U.S. efforts to counter what Washington says are Iran\u2019s expansionist policies.<\/p>\n

Trump has said he is \u201cnot satisfied\u201d with the Saudi explanations of Khashoggi\u2019s death. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has warned that the crisis could affect regional stability. But there are few indications that Khashoggi\u2019s death will fundamentally alter the relationship between the two nations.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a group of Republican senators called on Trump to suspend negotiations for a U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear agreement.<\/p>\n

They cited Khashoggi\u2019s death, as well as Riyadh\u2019s policies toward Lebanon and Yemen, as cause for \u201cserious concerns about the transparency, accountability and judgment of current decision-makers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Turkish announcement Wednesday appeared to partly illuminate what happened to Khashoggi, several central questions remain, including who ordered his killing and whether the crown prince was aware of the operation. While Riyadh has painted the killing as a rogue plot, Western officials say it is unlikely that something this complex could have been carried out without Mohammed\u2019s knowledge.<\/p>\n

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Wednesday that his government would take \u201cnecessary measures\u201d against those responsible for the journalist\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo long as those who are responsible and the circumstances around the killing are not made public, released and evaluated, we will go on demanding the truth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Turkey\u2019s top prosecutor on Wednesday laid out the most detailed description yet of how the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed, saying \u00adSaudi agents strangled him almost immediately after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and then dismembered his body. But the new information did not address the question that has bedeviled investigators and been the subject of furious… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348","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\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2349,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions\/2349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}