Turkey on Friday widened the investigation into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi after his visit to the Saudi consulate, searching a forest in the city and interviewing the mission’s staff.
Ankara denied giving any audio recording to US officials from the investigation about Khashoggi, a former royal insider who moved to the United States after becoming a critic of the current House of Saud leadership.
US President Donald Trump acknowledged that Khashoggi was likely dead, even as his fate remained unclear 17 days after he vanished.
Pro-government Turkish media have repeatedly claimed that Khashoggi was tortured and decapitated by a Saudi hit squad inside the consulate, although Turkey has yet to divulge details about the investigation.
But the controversy has already put the kingdom — for decades a key Western ally and bulwark against Iran in the Middle East — under unprecedented pressure amid reports it is scrambling to provide an explanation to take the heat off its rulers.
It is also a major crisis for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a favourite of the Trump administration who has portrayed himself as a modernising Arab reformer, but whose image and even position at home could now be gravely undermined.
Close ally the United Arab Emirates warned on Friday the controversy should not be exploited to “destabilise” Saudi Arabia.
– Turkish employees testifying –
Fifteen staff, all Turkish nationals, were testifying Friday at the chief prosecutor’s office, state-run news agency Anadolu said. It has been reported Turkish employees were given the day off on October 2, the day Khashoggi disappeared.
Among those giving statements inside Istanbul’s main courthouse were the consulate driver, technicians, accountants and receptionists.
Istanbul’s Belgrad forest became a target of the investigation after police focused on the vehicles which had left the consulate on the day Khashoggi disappeared, NTV television reported. At least one vehicle is suspected to have gone to the forest.
The forest, a vast area and sufficiently remote for even locals to regularly get lost there, is nearly 15 kilometres (over nine miles) from the consulate.
Investigators already conducted two searches of the consulate and a nine-hour search of the consul’s residence this week.
Pro-government daily Sabah on Friday published new CCTV images of some of the Saudi team arriving in Istanbul and reported that two of the men landed in the city on October 1.
Previously, local media said the 15 men arrived in Turkey on October 2 on two private planes.