Saudi Arabia, which has already launched an investigation, promised to hold anyone implicated in the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi accountable, including high-profile officials.
With Saudi Arabia increasingly targeted by accusations coming from Turkey and the Western world, however, no tangible evidence whatsoever has been so far presented to ground them.
According to James Dorsey, senior fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and a veteran award-winning foreign correspondent, a lot is likely to depend on two things. The first one is the Turks:
“While having said that they have all kinds of evidence, they are going to have to come out very soon and show that evidence and I think a lot is going to depend on what evidence they show.” The other key factor to resolve the case is “how Saudi Arabia responds,“ the speaker remarked in an interview with Sputnik.
“Now that the Saudi [potential] statement in and of itself won’t be enough, and then the question is whether or not they penalize officials and how senior those officials are; and that’s what’s going to, I think, determine how harsh the response is,” Dorsey noted.
For the time being, Western media, including The Washington Post, and Turkish Yeni Safak have reported on Khashoggi’s disappearance, claiming that Turkey had allegedly informed US officials about audio and video recordings suggesting that the journalist had been murdered in the Saudi Consulate. This is something Riyadh has since vehemently denied.
Meanwhile, no tangible evidence of the aforementioned has been provided.
Khashoggi hasn’t been seen since he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to reportedly acquire documentation for his would-be marriage. According to Riyadh, however, he left the consulate building unharmed. The Saudis let Turkish police search the consulate twice, as well as the home of the consul general. Saudi Arabia has rejected the accusations.
Riyadh has launched an investigation into the case, denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance and promised to hold anyone involved in the case, senior officers among them, responsible.
