MYSTERY OF HOW CRITIC VANISHED
Did the Saudis chop up journalist Jamal Khashoggi and sneak his body from their consulate in bags?
AMAL Khashoggi strolled into the Saudi Arabian consulate expecting to finalise some routine paperwork — and vanished.
Hours later it is thought that his dismembered body was smuggled out of the building inside diplomatic boxes.
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Mr Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi regime, is said to have been butchered by a 15-strong death squad at the consulate in the Turkish city.
CCTV footage shows the Washington Post writer, 59, arriving on October 2 to collect papers he needed to get married but he is not seen leaving.
His fiancee Hatice Cengiz, 36, kept an 11-hour vigil outside. When she knocked on the door asking for him, she was told “nobody is here”.
But images have now emerged of boxes being loaded into a black van with diplomatic plates that sped away from the scene less than two hours after Mr Khashoggi arrived.
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Turkish officials yesterday said they had “concrete proof” Mr Khashoggi has been “brutally tortured, murdered and cut to pieces”
A source said: “Everything was videotaped to prove the mission had been accomplished and the tape was taken out of the country.”
The hit squad are said to have flown in and out of Turkey on the same day in private Gulfstream jets.
CCTV cameras show the van and its cargo headed for the D100 motorway towards Istanbul’s Ataturk airport.
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Police in Turkey have searched a plane which may have been involved in the removal of the body and they were expected to gain entry to the consulate.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared: “The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying ‘he has left’.”
The Saudis deny any involvement in the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi.
They insist he must have left the six-storey building himself and have offered journalists a tour.
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Officials in Saudi capital Riyadh admit sending a “security delegation” to Istanbul on the day Mr Khashoggi vanished but won’t say why.
Nor will they explain why CCTV footage exists of him leaving the building on September 28 after being told he must return to collect paperwork certifying his divorce.
Ms Cengiz said: “I am not giving up hope. I hope we will soon learn what happened to him, and I still have hope that he is alive.
“ I have to know what has happened to him.”
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The mystery has sparked a diplomatic row involving Britain and the US, both key allies of Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
US vice president Mike Pence insisted “the free world deserves answers” from the Saudis.
And Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday met our Saudi ambassador to seek “urgent answers” over the case. He tweeted: “Violence against journalists worldwide is going up and is a grave threat to freedom of expression.
“If media reports prove correct, we will treat the incident seriously — friendships depend on shared values.”
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A critic of the kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Mr Khashoggi was living in self-imposed exile in the US.
But his credentials make him an unlikely target to be bumped off.
Mr Khashoggi used to be a media adviser at the Saudi embassy in London. He has also advised intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal and was asked to persuade Osama bin Laden to give up terrorism prior to 9/11.
Until a year ago he was viewed as being generally sympathetic to the regime.
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Adam Coogle, who works for Human Rights Watch in neighbouring Oman, said: “I’m just amazed that someone with his profile would be a target.
“I have never heard of them killing dissidents on foreign soil before.”
But Mr Khashoggi was beginning to become a thorn in the side of Crown Prince Mohammad, questioning his isolation of Qatar and his crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.
And in a prophetic interview just three days before he disappeared, Mr Khashoggi told the BBC it would be too risky for him to return home.
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He said: “I don’t think I will ever be able to go home again.
“When I hear of an arrest of a friend who didn’t do anything, it makes me feel I shouldn’t go.
“People who are getting arrested are not even dissidents.”
Amnesty International UK’s foreign affairs expert Polly Truscott said: “This case should act as a much-needed wake-up call.
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“For far too long the UK has publicly downplayed the severity of the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia.
“The UK needs to seriously rethink its strategy on Saudi Arabia’s abysmal human rights record and the deeply concerning case may be the jolt that ministers need.”
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi says that the Osama bin Laden he knew died many years ago
Prison if you fail to Tweet support
SAUDI Arabia may have lifted its ban on women driving but it remains a repressive state.
This year an economist was charged with terrorism offences just for criticising financial policies.
Making jokes or even failing to tweet sufficient support for the regime can result in jail.
Under sharia law, those convicted of crimes face public stoning, amputation, lashings or beheading.
Saudi Arabia carried out 138 executions last year, the third highest number in the world.
Blogger Ghanem Almasarir, 38, has been in exile in Britain for 15 years.
He said: “Jamal is not the first Saudi to be kidnapped in Europe, but they used to be more careful. Since Mohammad bin Salman came to power he doesn’t care any longer. He does this in broad daylight on foreign soil. He will stop at nothing to silence his critics.
“If I went back to Saudi Arabia I would be cut into little pieces, believe me.”
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