Riyadh: Saudi Arabia has admitted that critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its Istanbul consulate, as world powers demanded answers and mystery surrounded the whereabouts of his body.
Ankara vowed to reveal all the details of a two-week inquiry as US President Donald Trump said he was unsatisfied with Saudi Arabia’s response to the Washington Post columnist’s death and the EU, Germany, France, Britain and the UN also demanded clarity.
Before dawn on Saturday, Riyadh backtracked on a fortnight of denials by announcing that Khashoggi died during a “brawl” inside the consulate on October 2. It said 18 Saudis have been arrested in connection with his death and two top aides of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as three other intelligence agents, have been sacked.
Saudi Arabia has plunged into an international crisis over the fate of Khashoggi, who was critical of the crown prince. Turkish officials have accused Riyadh of carrying out a state-sponsored killing and dismembering the body, which police have begun hunting for in an Istanbul forest.
In the latest version of events from Riyadh, Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said Khashoggi died after talks at the consulate degenerated into a physical altercation.
Trump said he found the explanation credible. The US president later said he was unsatisfied with the response, although he warned against scrapping a multibillion-dollar arms deal with the conservative kingdom.
The Saudi king also ordered the establishment of a ministerial body under the chairmanship of the crown prince to restructure the kingdom’s intelligence agency and “define its powers precisely,” Saudi state media said.
Key members of the crown prince’s inner circle were sacked, including deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri and royal court media adviser Saud al-Qahtani. Saudi Arabia’s Gulf ally, the United Arab Emirates, welcomed the moves by the king, as did Egypt.
But Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz tweeted that her heart was “full of sorrow” over the confirmation of his death.
The controversy has put the kingdom – for decades a key ally in Western efforts to contain Iran – under unprecedented pressure. It has evolved into a major crisis for Prince Mohammed, a Trump administration favourite widely known as MBS, whose image as a modernising Arab reformer has been gravely undermined.
Ankara said it had a “debt of honour” to reveal what happened. (AFP)
