Saudi agent 'called property owner a day before journalist was killed'

Police, aided by sniffer dogs, search two adjoining villas in Yalova in northwest Turkey as part of an investigation into the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Photos / AP

A Saudi agent involved in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi had discussed concealing Khashoggi's dismembered remains during a telephone call the day before the killing, Turkish prosecutors said today.

During a telephone discussion on October 1 between the agent, Mansour Othman Abbahussain, and a Saudi businessman who owns a villa in Turkey, "the conversation was regarding what would be done to destroy/hide the body of the killed journalist" after it was dismembered, a prosecutor's statement said.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who had written columns critical of current Saudi leaders, was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 by members of a 15-man team that had been sent to Turkey from Saudi Arabia, according to Turkish and Saudi prosecutors. His remains have not been recovered.

The phone discussion, if confirmed, bolsters Turkey's repeated assertions that Khashoggi's killing had been planned.

Saudi prosecutors say that the agents had orders only to persuade or force Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia and that they killed the journalist during a struggle in the consulate.

Information about the phone call led Turkish investigators to search two villas in northwestern Turkey today, including one owned by the Saudi businessman who allegedly spoke to the agent, according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency.

The businessman was not in Turkey when Khashoggi was killed and has not visited the country since, the news agency said.

In addition to the search of the villas, security agents, using sniffer dogs and drones, drained a well in the yard of one of the houses. It was not clear whether the search, in Yalova province, turned up any evidence.

Turkish police vans outside a luxury villa in Yalova, northwest Turkey.

Turkey's steady release of investigative details has kept Saudi Arabia's leaders on the defensive and forced a belated Saudi admission that its agents were responsible for Khashoggi's death.

The investigation has focused attention on the policies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, who has imprisoned rivals, clerics and independent political activists at home.

To counter the negative publicity, Mohammed embarked on a tour of Arab states last week, visiting closely allied leaders in the Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. He was scheduled to visit Tunisia tomorrow.

Activists and journalists who today protested against Mohammed's visit in the Tunisian capital displayed a banner of the Crown Prince holding a chainsaw - a reference to Khashoggi's dismemberment, Bloomberg News reported.