Turkish authorities are providing state protection to Hatice Cengiz, the bereaved fiancee of murdered Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Cengiz will be provided with around-the-clock security by employees of the Istanbul Security Directorate, Hurriyet newspaper reported on Sunday, citing a source in the Istanbul governor’s office.
The Turkish native sat outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, the day that Khashoggi disappeared, waiting for him to collect documents that the latter had been told by consulate staff he would need for his marriage to Cengiz. A Turkish citizen, Cengiz was not permitted to follow her fiancee into the building, according to reports.
She told Reuters that Khashoggi handed her his two mobile phones and left instructions that she should call an aide to the Turkish president should he not reappear. After seeing her fiancee for the last time, she waited some five hours before calling the police, after a consulate staff member told her that Khashoggi had left the building.
Earlier on Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir expressed his condolences to Jamal Khashoggi’s family, saying that the journalist’s death was a « terrible mistake. » Al-Jubeir claimed that Riyadh’s Crown Prince Salman was « not aware » of the killing inside the embassy.
On Sunday, officials from the UK, France, and Germany issued a joint statement condemning Khashoggi’s death in the « strongest possible terms, » observing that the Saudi explanation for the killing « needs to be backed by facts to be considered credible. »
