‘Saudi officials tied to Khashoggi case to be prosecuted’

A Turkish official has vowed that the country will prosecute all those involved in the suspected kidnapping or murder of a dissident Saudi journalist in Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul, even if it involves the Saudi consul himself.

On Friday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Turkey could search the consulate for the missing dissident. He claimed that Khashoggi had left the building not long after he entered earlier this week. “If he’s in Saudi Arabia, I would know that.”

“As if the Saudi authorities were asleep and there was a strange silence at a time when the news of Khashoggi’s disappearance was spread in the world,” he noted.

’Mysterious boxes taken out of consulate’

On Monday, London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi paper said Turkish investigators looking at footage from security cameras at the consulate saw men taking some boxes from the building to a black car following the disappearance.

It said Turkish officials had accused Saudi authorities of killing the 59-year-old inside the facility using a special force sent from Riyadh.

Saudi Consul General, Mohammed al-Otaibi, however, invited journalists into the building on Saturday to try to prove that Khashoggi was not there, saying reports of his detention were false.

Separately, reports surfaced online, saying that Riyadh had expelled the Turkish ambassador over Khashoggi’s case.

In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry reacted to one such report “published in one of the websites” as “totally baseless and false.”

UN urges probe

Also on Tuesday, the United Nations voiced deep concern over the reports about Khashoggi, urging Turkey and Saudi Arabia to investigate the matter.

“Yes, this is of serious concern, the apparent enforced disappearance of Mr Khashoggi from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul,” UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva news briefing.

“If reports of his death and the extraordinary circumstances leading up to it are true, this is truly shocking,” she added. “We call for cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into the circumstances of Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance and to make the findings public.”

The countries are mandated to do so under both criminal law and international human rights law, Shamdasani noted.