Saudi Arabia on Saturday admitted that dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in Istanbul, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.
Preliminary investigations revealed that a meeting between Khashoggi and a few others at the consulate led to a “quarrel and a brawl with... Jamal Khashoggi, resulted in his death.”
The kingdom announced that 18 people had been arrested in the ongoing investigation. Royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani and deputy intelligence chief Ahmed Asiri have been sacked from their positions, Reuters reported quoting a statement from the Saudi public prosecutor.
Saudi King Salman has also ordered that a ministerial committee under the chairmanship of the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman be set up to restructure the kingdom’s intelligence agency and “define its powers accurately”, AFP reported quoting the state media.
Shortly before the announcement, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi King Salman agreed over a phone conversation to continue cooperation in the investigation.
The White House said it was “saddened” over Khashoggi’s death, but did not mention of action against the US ally, reported AFP. “We will continue to closely follow the international investigations into this tragic incident and advocate for justice that is timely, transparent and in accordance with all due process,” said White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders.
Khashoggi, a vocal critic of the Saudi regime, had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since 2017. He has been missing since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. On Wednesday, audio recordings accessed by a Turkish daily suggested that Khashoggi was tortured before being decapitated inside the consulate.
The news of Khashoggi’s death comes two days after United States President Donald Trump said it was likely that Khashoggi had died. Trump’s remarks came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned from meeting leaders in Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Turkish officials suspected that a 15-member team “came from Saudi Arabia” to murder the dissident. Saudi officials have repeatedly denied any involvement in the journalist’s disappearance and reiterated the same to Pompeo when he visited Saudi Arabia.
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