The Saudi government is under growing pressure to turn over Khashoggi’s body so he can be laid to rest. Khashoggi disappeared after entering the…
The Saudi government is under growing pressure to turn over Khashoggi’s body so he can be laid to rest.
Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate on October 2 seeking paperwork he needed to marry his girlfriend. Reports from Turkish intelligence indicated that he was murdering by a team of Saudi agents who flew to Turkey specifically to kill him, with the agents dismembering Khashoggi while he was still alive before killing him, all within a span of seven minutes.
Amid growing international pressure, the Saudi government finally admitted involvement and said that a group of 18 people had been arrested, but maintained that Khashoggi was killed in a fight. In a statement on Saturday, Turkish government official Omer Celik told the Anadolu news agency that this was not the case.
“Turkey will reveal whatever had happened,” Celik said. “Nobody should ever doubt about it. We are not accusing anyone in advance but we don’t accept anything to remain covered [up].”
Turkish officials reportedly have grisly recordings of Khashoggi’s killing, which showed the team working with discipline and efficiency as his body was dismembered. Reports indicate that a forensic pathologist who led the dismemberment put on headphones to listen to music while Khashoggi was decapitated and dismembered, and advised the other members of the team to do the same.
“This is the worst coverup I’ve ever seen… Where is the body? Why did it take seventeen days to come up with this account?” https://t.co/YQ749VE92k
— Marty Baron (@PostBaron) October 20,2018
With Saudi Arabia’s admission on Friday that it was invovled in his death, the pressure to turn over his body is growing.
“Give us Jamal, so we can have a funeral for him,” said Turan Kislakci, the head of the Turkish Arab Media Association and a friend of Khashoggi, in a statement outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. “So that all people who care about him, world leaders, can come here to Istanbul for the funeral.”
