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Saudi prosecutors say Jamal Khashoggi murder WAS pre-planned

Khashoggi, 59, went missing after entering Saudi consulate building in Istanbul
Turkish President Erdogan said writer was victim of 'savage' pre-planned murder
Saudi prosecutors now say that the 'act of the suspects... was premeditated'

Published: 06:57 EDT, 25 October 2018 | Updated: 07:34 EDT, 25 October 2018

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Saudi Arabia has said the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul was 'premeditated' - based on information supplied by Turkey.

Khashoggi, 59, went missing after entering the Saudi consulate building in Istanbul on October 2 and there have been claims he was tortured and killed by a Saudi hit squad.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that the writer was the victim of a 'savage' and pre-planned murder.

US President Donald Trump, in his toughest comments on the case yet, said the kingdom's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, may be behind Khashoggi's death.

In a statement today, Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor said: 'Information from the Turkish authorities indicates that the act of the suspects in the Khashoggi case was premeditated.'

Saudi Arabia had insisted for weeks that Khashoggi had walked out of the consulate, before changing their account to say he died in a brawl. A member of the Crown Prince's entourage on foreign trips was seen at the consulate before the Washington Post columnist's slaying.

Saudi Arabia has said the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (pictured) in Istanbul was 'premeditated' based on information supplied by Turkey, state media reported

US President Donald Trump, in his toughest comments on the case yet, said the kingdom's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, may be behind Khashoggi's death

As the de facto ruler of the kingdom, the Crown Prince has been widely blamed for the death, which was carried out by a hit squad of senior Saudi intelligence officials. Critics suspect he ordered the high-profile operation or at least knew about it.

Yesterday, Trump said the Crown Prince bore ultimate responsibility for the operation that led to the journalist's killing, piling pressure on his ally.

Trump told the Wall Street Journal that he wanted to believe the 33-year-old prince when he said that lower level officials were to blame for the killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

But he suggested responsibility lay higher up: 'Well, the prince is running things over there more so at this stage. He's running things and so if anybody were going to be, it would be him.'

Hours later, the Crown Prince declared the murder a 'heinous crime that cannot be justified'.

In a defiant speech at the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh, he insisted Saudi Arabia was cooperating 'to bring the perpetrators to justice'.

A tough critic of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Khashoggi, disappeared after he entered the Saudi consulate (pictured) in Istanbul on October 2 to collect a document for his upcoming marriage

But in his first such remarks since the killing of the Washington Post columnist at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, he also accused unnamed forces of using the case to drive a wedge between his country and Turkey.

'Undoubtedly the cooperation between the Saudi and Turkish government is unique and we know that many are trying to use this painful thing to drive a wedge between Saudi Arabia and Turkey,' he said.

'I want to send them a message - they will not be able to do that as long as there is a king called Salman bin Abdulaziz.'

After cheers from the audience, he added: 'And a Crown Prince called Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia and a president in Turkey called Erdogan.... This wedge will not happen and we will prove to the world that we are cooperating to bring the perpetrators to justice.'

Saudi media have reported that despite a numer of executives and officials pulling out of attending the event - dubbed 'Davos in the desert', $50 billion dollars worth of deals were signed on Tuesday alone.

This morning, he attended the first meeting of a committee aiming to restructure the kingdom's intelligence services. The kingdom announced over the weekend that 18 Saudis had been arrested in the writer's slaying, while four senior intelligence officials and an adviser to the crown prince had been fired.

It comes as Turkey today urged Saudi Arabia to answer questions that remain over the murder of Riyadh critic Khashoggi, such as who ordered his killing and what happened to the body.

Saudi authorities last week claimed Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor, was killed during a 'brawl', and arrested 18 Saudis in connection with his death.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this week said the 'savage' murder had been planned, while Turkish media have published gruesome details of Khashoggi's alleged torture and decapitation.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince described the murder of Jamal Khashoggi as a ' heinous crime that cannot be justified'

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured in Ankara yesterday) has vowed to bring Jamal Khashoggi's killers to justice

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: 'There are still questions that need answers' over the premedidated murder, demanding the Saudis explain why the 18 were arrested.

'Who gave them the orders?' he asked, pointing out that Khashoggi's body had still not been found.

'Where is (the body)? You admit they did it, but why are they not saying (where)?' Cavusoglu told a press conference in Ankara with Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki.

'His family also wants to know and pay their final tribute.'

The Turkish minister repeated Erdogan's demand that those involved in the murder should be legally tried in Turkey, adding that Ankara was willing to cooperate with everyone.

Turkey did not have 'any desire' to take the case to an international court, he added, but would be willing to share information and the outcomes of its investigation.

CIA Director Gina Haspel visited Ankara on Tuesday for talks, with Turkish pro-government media claiming on Wednesday intelligence officials shared evidence with her.

The officials provided Haspel with video images and audio tapes as well as evidence gathered from the consulate and the consul's residence during a briefing at the Turkish Intelligence Organisation (MIT), Sabah newspaper reported.

Asked about to confirm whether this was true, Cavusoglu said he could not provide an exact answer but said Turkey would 'share documents and evidence in our hands with countries and institutions which wanted it'.

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi: Key moments surrounding the writer's disappearance and death

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote critically of the kingdom's policies and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say a 15-men team tortured, killed and dismembered the writer, while Saudi Arabia says he died in a 'fistfight.'

Here are some key moments in the slaying of the Washington Post columnist:

BEFORE HIS DISAPPEARANCE

September 2017: The Post publishes the first column by Khashoggi in its newspaper, in which the former royal court insider and longtime journalist writes about going into a self-imposed exile in the U.S. over the rise of Prince Mohammed. His following columns criticize the prince and the kingdom's direction.

September 28, 2018: Over a year after the Post published his first column, Khashoggi visits the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, seeking documents in order to get married. He's later told to return October 2, his fiancee Hatice Cengiz says. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a plan or a 'road map' to kill Khashoggi was devised in Saudi Arabia during this time.

September 29: Khashoggi travels to London and speaks at a conference.

October 1: Khashoggi returns to Istanbul. At around 4.30pm, a three-person Saudi team arrives in Istanbul on a scheduled flight, checks in to their hotels then visits the consulate, according to Erdogan. The Turkish president says another group of officials from the consulate travel to a forest in Istanbul's outskirts and to the nearby city of Yalova on a 'reconnaissance' trip.

Jamal Khashoggi (right) arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2

THE DAY OF HIS DISAPPEARANCE

3.28am, October 2: A private jet arrives at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport carrying some members of what Turkish media will refer to as a 15-member Saudi 'assassination squad.' Other members of the team arrive by two commercial flights in the afternoon. Erdogan says the team includes Saudi security and intelligence officials and a forensics expert. They meet at the Saudi Consulate. One of the first things they do is to dismantle a hard disk connected to the consulate's camera system, the president says.

11.50am: Khashoggi is called to confirm his appointment at the consulate later that day, Erdogan says.

1.14pm: Surveillance footage later leaked to Turkish media shows Khashoggi walking into the main entrance of the Saudi Consulate. No footage made public ever shows him leaving. His fiancee waits outside, pacing for hours.

3.07pm: Surveillance footage shows vehicles with diplomatic license plates leaving the Saudi Consulate for the consul general's home some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away.

5.50pm: Khashoggi's fiancee alerts authorities, saying he may have been forcibly detained inside the consulate or that something bad may have happened to him, according to Erdogan.

7pm: A private plane from Saudi Arabia carries six members of the alleged Saudi squad from Istanbul to Cairo, the next day returning to Riyadh.

11pm: Seven members of the alleged Saudi squad leave on another private jet to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which the next day returns to Riyadh. Two others leave by commercial flights.

Erdogan confirms reports that a 'body double' - a man wearing Khashoggi's clothes, glasses and a beard - leaves the consulate building for Riyadh with another person on a scheduled flight later that day.

CCTV images showed a a private jet alleged to have been used by a group of Saudi men suspected of being involved in Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death

INITIAL REACTION

October 3: Khashoggi's fiancee and the Post go public with his disappearance. Saudi Arabia says Khashoggi visited the consulate and exited shortly thereafter. Turkish officials suggest Khashoggi might still be in the consulate. Prince Mohammed tells Bloomberg: 'We have nothing to hide.'

October 4: Saudi Arabia says on its state-run news agency that the consulate is carrying out 'follow-up procedures and coordination with the Turkish local authorities to uncover the circumstances of the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi after he left the consulate building.'

October 5: The Post prints a blank column in its newspaper in solidarity with Khashoggi, headlined: 'A missing voice.'

October 6: The Post, citing anonymous Turkish officials, reports Khashoggi may have been killed in the consulate in a 'preplanned murder' by a Saudi team.

October 7: A friend of Khashoggi tells the AP that officials told him the writer was killed at the consulate. The consulate rejects what it calls 'baseless allegations.'

October 8: Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Turkey is summoned over Khashoggi's disappearance and alleged killing.

LEAKED FOOTAGE

October 9: Turkey says it will search the Saudi Consulate as a picture of Khashoggi walking into the diplomatic post surfaces.

October 10: Surveillance footage is leaked of Khashoggi and the alleged Saudi squad that killed him. Khashoggi's fiancee asks President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump for help.

October 11: Turkish media describes Saudi squad as including royal guards, intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert. Trump calls Khashoggi's disappearance a 'bad situation' and promises to get to the bottom of it.

October 12: Trump again pledges to find out what happened to Khashoggi.

October 13: A pro-government newspaper reports that Turkish officials have an audio recording of Khashoggi's alleged killing from his Apple Watch, but details in the report come into question.

INTERNATIONAL UPROAR

October 14: Trump says that 'we're going to get to the bottom of it, and there will be severe punishment' if Saudi Arabia is involved. The kingdom responds with a blistering attack against those who threaten it, as the manager of a Saudi-owned satellite news channel suggests the country could retaliate through its oil exports. The Saudi stock exchange plunges as much as 7 percent at one point.

Khashoggi (pictured), went missing after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul

October 15: A Turkish forensics team enters and searches the Saudi Consulate, an extraordinary development as such diplomatic posts are considered sovereign soil. Trump suggests after a call with Saudi King Salman that 'rogue killers' could be responsible for Khashoggi's alleged slaying. Trump says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to the Mideast over the case. Meanwhile, business leaders say they won't attend an economic summit in the kingdom that's the brainchild of Prince Mohammed.

October 16: A high-level Turkish official tells the AP that 'certain evidence' was found in the Saudi Consulate proving Khashoggi was killed there. Pompeo arrives for meetings in Saudi Arabia with King Salman and Prince Mohammed. Meanwhile, Trump compares the case to the appointment of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing, saying: 'Here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent.'

October 17: Pompeo meets with Turkey's president and foreign minister in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Turkish police search the official residence of Saudi Arabia's consul general in Istanbul and conduct a second sweep of the consulate.

October 18: A leaked surveillance photograph shows a member of Prince Mohammed's entourage walked into the consulate just before Khashoggi vanished there.

October 20: Saudi Arabia for the first time acknowledges Khashoggi was killed in the consulate, claiming he was slain in a 'fistfight.' The claim draws immediate skepticism from the kingdom's Western allies, particularly in the U.S. Congress.

October 22: A report says a member of Prince Mohammed's entourage made four calls to the royal's office around the time Khashoggi was killed. Police search a vehicle belonging to the Saudi consulate parked at an underground garage in Istanbul.

October 23: Erdogan says Saudi officials murdered Khashoggi after plotting his death for days, demanding that Saudi Arabia reveal the identities of all involved.