Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled to death as soon as he entered Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in a premeditated murder, the city’s chief prosecutor said in a statement likely to keep tensions between Ankara and Riyadh elevated.
Since the Washington Post columnist vanished earlier this month, Turkish officials have strategically leaked key developments in the case to control the narrative. In recent days they had gone quiet. On Wednesday, unidentified state sources again began dominating news coverage of the murder, saying a Saudi prosecutor who had flown to Turkey to work on the case was unhelpful. The Istanbul prosecutor’s office disclosed the new details in a statement issued soon after the Saudi official, Saud al-Mojeb, flew home after a three-day visit.
The killing of Khashoggi, a former Saudi court insider, has also focused international attention on the policies of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The prince in 2015 ordered a military intervention in Yemen’s war and has led an unprecedented political and economic embargo against neighboring Qatar and engaged in diplomatic confrontations with Germany and Canada.
In a sign of the pressure on the Saudi leadership to change course, top U.S. officials on Wednesday demanded peace talks within a month to end the Yemen conflict.