Turkey wants Saudi Arabia to prove that journalist Jamal Khashoggi left the Saudi consulate alive, as has been claimed. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called for a thorough and open probe into the matter.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/V. Mayo
Advertisement
Turkey has sought permission to search Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing last week while on a visit to the mission, broadcaster NTV reported Monday.
Erdogan: 'If he left, you have to prove it with footage'
00:20
This browser does not support the video element.
Turkish officials believe Khashoggi, a staunch critic of Saudi Arabia's policies, was likely killed inside the consulate where he had gone on Tuesday to obtain an official document for his upcoming marriage to his Turkish partner.
Saudi Arabia's consul-general has rejected the murder allegations and said his country was helping search for Khashoggi.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said he was personally monitoring the case, told reporters that consulate officials must prove that Khashoggi left the building.
"We have to get an outcome from this investigation as soon as possible. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying 'He has left'," Erdogan told a news conference while on a trip to Budapest.
Erdogan said Turkey had no documents or evidence at hand regarding the case.
Turkey summoned Saudi Arabia's envoy to Ankara for a second time on Sunday to seek "full coordination in the investigation process."
Khashoggi, a regular contributor to The Washington Post, has been a fierce critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and has criticized Saudi Arabia's policies toward Qatar and Canada, the war in Yemen and a crackdown on dissent, the media and activists.
Turan Kislakci, a friend of Khashoggi who heads the Turkish-Arab Media Association, told DW on Saturday that the journalist "was killed because of his opinion about the wars in Yemen and Syria."
"After Jamal Khashoggi entered the consulate, 15 people entered as well, they had arrived from Saudi Arabia in two different planes," he said. "He was murdered inside the consulate, and we assume that he was cut into pieces, they put his body parts in bags, and left."
Journalism: A dangerous activity
In the first 10 months of 2018, 73 journalists and media workers have died — and not just in war zones. Threats to investigative reporters are increasing, with a number being arrested and jailed over the last year.
Image: Getty Images/C. McGrath
Viktoria Marinova, Bulgaria
The 30-year-old TV presenter had recently hosted investigative journalists working on alleged corruption involving European Union funds. She was brutally murdered in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse in October 2018.
Image: BGNES
Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia
The 60-year-old author, <i>Washington Post</i> columnist and former editor-in-chief of Al Arab News Channel was last seen walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 to get papers to verify his divorce. His fiancee waited outside for 11 hours, and she says he never came out. Khashoggi had previously said he believed the Saudi leadership wanted to kill him.
Image: Reuters/Middle East Monitor
Samim Faramarz, Ramiz Ahmadi, Afghanistan
TV news reporter Samim Faramarz was killed in September 2018 with his cameraman Ramiz Ahmadi when they were reporting from the scene of an explosion in the west of Kabul. The car bomb went off just meters from where they were just finishing a live report. Afghanistan remains the deadliest place in the world to be a journalist.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Marai
Mario Gomez, Mexico
After Afghanistan and Syria, Mexico is the most dangerous nation for journalists. There were 14 journalists killed in 2017, and at least 10 more lost their lives in 2018. Mario Gomez, a 35-year-old correspondent, was shot dead by armed men as he left his home in Chiapas in September 2018. He had reportedly received death threats after investigating corruption among state officials.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/Y. Cortez
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Myanmar
Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had reported the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim villagers. They were arrested in December 2017 after being invited to meet police for dinner in Yangon. In September 2018, after 39 court appearances and 265 days in detention, they were jailed for seven years for breaching the 1923 Official Secrets Act.
Image: Reuters/A. Wang
Marlon de Carvalho Araujo, Brazil
A major issue in Brazil's election campaign was corruption. Radio journalist Marlon de Carvalho Araujo focused on reporting graft, and he wrote on corruption involving officials at various levels of the Bahia regional administration. In August 2018, four gunmen burst into his home in the early hours and shot him dead.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/E. Sa
Shujaat Bukhari, Kashmir
Kashmir journalist Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead outside his newspaper office in Srinagar in June 2018. A contributor to DW, he advocated a peaceful resolution to the conflict between India and Pakistan over the mountainous region.
Image: twitter.com/bukharishujaat
The Capital, Maryland, USA
Editor Wendi Winters, her assistant Robert Hiaasen, writer Gerald Fischman, reporter John McNamara and sales assistant Rebecca Smith died when a gunman shot through the glass door into their office in June 2018. The man, who had filed a defamation lawsuit against the paper, was arrested at the scene and charged with their murders.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Ngan
Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova, Slovakia
An ex-police officer was named as the killer of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his partner Martina Kusnirova in February 2018. The murders sparked mass protests and led to the resignation of the prime minister. Kuciak had been investigating ties between government officials and the Italian mafia.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/D. Voijnovic
Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta
Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist who linked Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to the Panama Papers scandal, was killed when a bomb destroyed her car in October 2017.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/L.Klimkeit
10 images1 | 10
'Devastating' impact
US President Donald Trump weighed in on the issue on Monday, telling reporters at the White House that he was "concerned" about Khashoggi's disappearance. "Right now, nobody knows anything about it," he said. "There are some pretty bad stories going around. I do not like it."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also voiced concern and called for a thorough and open probe by Saudi Arabia.
"We call on the government of Saudi Arabia to support a thorough investigation of Mr. Khashoggi's disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation," Pompeo said in a statement.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham went a step further, warning of a "devastating" impact on Washington's alliance with Riyadh if allegations that the kingdom murdered Khashoggi are confirmed.
Graham said his position was shared by Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Ben Cardin, a senior Democrat on the panel.
Germany on Monday expressed concern about Khashoggi's disappearance. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said he would not speculate on what happened.
According to The Washington Post, the newspaper's publisher Fred Ryan met with the Saudi ambassador to the US on Sunday night. Riyadh's Washington envoy reportedly told Ryan it was "impossible" that consulate employees could cover up such a crime "and we wouldn't know about it."
