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Home / World

Saudi minister says Khashoggi's death was a 'rogue operation' and a 'mistake'

By Tamer El-Ghobashy, Carol Morello
Washington Post·
21 Oct, 2018 06:47 PM5 mins to read

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An image taken from CCTV video obtained by the Turkish broadcaster TRT World, purportedly shows Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Photo / AP

An image taken from CCTV video obtained by the Turkish broadcaster TRT World, purportedly shows Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Photo / AP

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister denied today that the kingdom's crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, had any prior knowledge of an operation that resulted in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

Adel al-Jubeir said that the agents involved "weren't people closely tied" to the crown prince.

"This was an operation that was a rogue operation," he told Fox News. "This was an operation where individuals ended up exceeding the authorities and responsibilities they had. They made a mistake when they killed Jamal Khashoggi."

"Even the senior leadership of our intelligence service was not aware of this," Jubeir added, marking the first public comments by a senior Saudi official since Saturday, when authorities in Riyadh announced they had arrested 18 people and fired five top officials in connection with the journalist's death.

Jubeir said Saudi Arabia does not know where Khashoggi's body is and that officials have not listened to an audio tape Turkey claims proves Khashoggi's torture, killing and dismemberment.

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Jubeir spoke shortly after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he will soon be revealing details of his Government's investigation into the killing of Khashoggi, a move that could directly contradict Saudi Arabia's official account of what happened inside its consulate in Istanbul.

Erdogan said he would be explaining the episode "in a very different way" when his ruling party meets on Wednesday, adding to the already intense global pressure Saudi leadership has faced to provide a full picture of how Khashoggi was killed.

"We seek justice and this will be revealed in all its naked truth, not through some ordinary steps but in all its naked truth," Erdogan said, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency. "The incident will be revealed entirely."

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Turkey and Saudi Arabia have been at odds over what happened inside the consulate ever since Khashoggi, a US-based Washington Post contributing columnist and critic of the Saudi monarchy, disappeared there on October 2.

Saudi Arabia's strongarm tactics are causing alarm on other fronts. Kuwait has signed a military cooperation with Turkey. Kuwaitis call Mohammed bin Salman "Little Saddam". https://t.co/93yJoHztoO

— Liz Sly (@LizSly) October 21, 2018

Turkish authorities almost immediately concluded Khashoggi was deliberately targeted by a 15-man squad of Saudi agents who killed and dismembered him inside the diplomatic mission. The authorities said their conclusions are based on audio recordings from inside the consulate that provide a clear account of how Khashoggi was killed.

Saudi Arabia denied any knowledge of his fate for two weeks. On Saturday, the kingdom changed course dramatically, announcing that a preliminary investigation found that Khashoggi was killed after a fistfight inside the consulate.

Saudi prosecutors said 18 people had been arrested and five top officials fired for their connection to the case. Two of the dismissed officials were among Mohammed's closest advisers.

Discover more

World

Prince will be 'investigator, judge and jury'

20 Oct 09:38 PM
World

Interview reveals Khashoggi worried over 'thuggish' aides

20 Oct 11:42 PM
New Zealand|politics

NZ condemns killing of journalist Khashoggi

21 Oct 01:44 AM
World

Claims of a Saudi cover-up

21 Oct 04:00 PM

"Why did those 15 people come (to Istanbul); why were 18 people arrested (in Saudi Arabia)?" Erdogan said. "This should be explained in full detail."

People who recently interacted with the crown prince say he was shocked by the backlash, couldn’t understand why Khashoggi’s disappearance was such a big deal https://t.co/oyvmFkChAp

— Ahmed Al Omran (@ahmed) October 21, 2018

The arrests in Saudi Arabia did little to ease intense global pressure on Mohammed, whose self-styled image as a modernising reformer has been tarnished by Khashoggi's killing.

The Saudi explanation has also been met with scepticism by European nations and US lawmakers who have expressed concern that the Saudi investigation is solely designed to shield Mohammed from any culpability.

US President Donald Trump initially said the Saudi explanation of Khashoggi's death was credible.

But in an interview late yesterday, Trump conceded that "there had been deception." Still, he defended Saudi Arabia as an "incredible ally" and expressed hope that Mohammed was not involved.

Erdogan's comments came after a spokesman for his party said that Turkey would not allow a cover-up of Khashoggi's death. Taken together, it suggests Turkey's President is seeking to increase his leverage over the Saudis and the Trump Administration, which has tried to protect its Saudi allies.

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“First of all we aren’t an authoritarian government. We are a monarchy. We have our checks and balances”

—Saudi FM Jubeir pic.twitter.com/wos1WtNDjE

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) October 21, 2018

Seeking to contain the international fallout, which has included calls for a transparent independent investigation and a host of nations and corporations pulling their participation in a high-profile investment conference in Saudi Arabia this week, Jubeir said the shifting Saudi account of what happened was a result of a cover-up by the arrested agents.

"They told us that he left the consulate," Jubeir said. "They came back to Saudi Arabia; they filed a report to that effect."

A public prosecutor launched his investigation after "discrepancies" between the agents' report and the reports coming out of Turkey, which Jubeir said revealed that the team had falsified its report.

"The individuals who did this took this outside the scope of their authority. Obviously, it was a tremendous mistake made. And what compounded the mistake was their attempt to cover up."

Jubeir added, "This is an aberration, this is a mistake, this is a criminal act, and those responsible for it will be punished."

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